Wet and slugs

While most tillage areas finished up ‘drier’ than their 30-year mean in Met Eireann observations, most will be glad to see the back of 2017.

It might not have been ‘wet’ compared to the 30-year mean but land never really dried out since last July and there were relatively few decent drying days in that half year. That’s why we still have straw on the ground.

Land is pretty much saturated now again but winter is the time of the year for that. Thankfully most crops look quite good, despite the late planting, and the best thing it could do now is to stay cold so that they will not be trying to grow in waterlogged conditions, which would put them under stress. But some late crops were lost in places.

Indeed, some crops looked better in the middle of December than they did in mid-November when winter barley showed a lot of headland yellowing in places.

Slugs

Pressure has been high in many fields so take another look to ensure that you are not seeing fresh activity, whether the field was treated previously or not. Spot treatment might still be useful but most fields are impassable due to wet. Even a few pellets applied by hand might slow a problem to prevent further crop damage.

Read more

Tillage management: grain stores, record keeping and soil testing

Tillage management: upcoming conferences