This week we revisit growers from Wexford, Laois and Galway. All growers have either finished or are close to finishing their autumn sowing campaigns. Ground conditions remain excellent which made applying autumn herbicides a breeze. One comment from all growers stands out this year however. All growers are noticing a higher than usual amount of crows causing damage to winter cereals. Stephen Robb reports.
Ballycarney, Co Wexford
Excellent conditions continue to prevail in Ballycarney. The sun was shining when we paid a visit to Julian last week as he was applying an autumn herbicide on winter barley. The full video of our visit can be seen on the Irish Farmers Journal website.
Conditions at time of sowing were very dry explains Julian, and some ground needed moisture to help with germination. This moisture arrived last Saturday week with storm Callum as 40mm of rain was dumped on the farm. The ground was once again trafficable by Monday however. Temperatures remain mild during the day and cool at night.
Julian Ashmore spraying Fence (0.3l/ha) and Diflanil (0.25l/ha) on his Cassia winter barley.
Julian began sowing Cassia winter barley on 30 September at 180kg/ha. He began sowing Husky winter oats on 9 October at 140kg/ha. Crop establishment in the winter barley has been very high this year and he expects the same with oats. No fertiliser was sown with the seed but Julian suspects that there may be residues of last season’s fertiliser still in the soil, especially on spring crops which yielded very poorly.
Crow damage visible
Crow damage has been particularly severe in the winter oats this year. He has a number of kites set up as a deterrent. “I’ve never seen crows as active as this year, the seed is well-covered but they still find it and follow the row,” explains Julian.
While rolling post-sowing is a help, they still find their way to the seed he remarks. Julian sprayed his winter barley last week with Fence which containing Flufenacet (0.3l/ha) and Diflanil (0.25l/ha) along with 160l of water per hectare at the two-leaved stage. He was targeting mainly grassweeds, cleavers and groundsel. He runs 03 flat-fan nozzles at 2.5-3 bar pressure in order to create a fine enough spray to get adequate amounts of active on the seedling weeds.
He doesn’t envisage having to spray winter oats with a herbicide this autumn. “The crop can usually get ahead of the grassweeds, it may have to get a spring herbicide however,” he stated.
His fodder rape and leafy turnip cover crops are moving along well.
“There’s still a lot of crops being planted in the area this week, mostly winter oats and winter barley.”
Portlaoise, Co Laois
Like the majority of the rest of the country, weather has made autumn-sowing operations a smooth affair in Portlaoise. We visited Eugene’s farm last week on a sunny morning to discuss his winter cereal and cover crop performance so far this year. Watch the full video on the Irish Farmers Journal website.
Eugene sowed his Carnival winter barley three weeks ago at 310seeds/ m2 with a TGW of 58g. Establishment was around 90%. The crops were sprayed with Tower (2.0l/ha) this week, targeting mainly grassweeds. He is currently contract-sowing Orval triticale for a livestock farmer who intends on whole cropping it next year. The crop will receive a post-emergence herbicide in a number of weeks. Crows have also been a burden this year on earlier-sown triticale in the area. Eugene will sow Bennington winter wheat within the next week. The field was only sprayed off with glyphosate a week ago and will be cultivated within the coming days. Hedge-cutting is progressing well and he is currently around 30% through.
Cover crop talk
Eugene’s forage rape and leafy turnip crops, which were sown on 20 August are doing well and are currently around wellie boot-height. Establishment was excellent and the crop will be grazed during the winter after a temporary fence is erected. However, if ground conditions deteriorate Eugene will pull stock off the ground and feed silage in order to prevent soil structure damage. His phacelia and vetch cover crops however are struggling.
They were sown at the start of September but the strike was poor. He initially thought herbicide residues may be the cause of the poor vigour but it is now more likely that the establishment method may have had a bigger hand to play.
This ground was first grubbed and cultivated and left for a week. Eugene thinks that the ground may have dried out too much during that week before drilling the crop.
“If the weather holds we’ll have the bulk of the sowing and spraying done within the week. I’ll then move back to hedge-cutting and focus on getting the wet ground done first.”
Ballinasloe, Co Galway
The settled spell is also dominating the weather in the west and ground conditions remain excellent. Last Saturday week was the first very wet day in a long time explains John, but by the following Monday field work had recommenced. Daytime temperatures of up to 15°C are helping to drive crop growth while frosty nights are helping to keep it in check.
The bulk of the contract sowing is complete while all of his own crops are now sown. Galway appears to be following the general cropping trend this autumn with the area of winter barley increasing significantly.
John Daly has been busy spreading lime on contract this autumn as ground conditions remain excellent.
“Any ground which would take winter barley was put into winter barley,” explains John. As a result, securing seed in a timely fashion has been a challenge.
John would usually start sowing around 25 September but didn’t start this year until 3 October due in part to seed availability.
Luckily though, he was busy at silage around this time. Autumn sowing went smoothly having sown varieties Cassia, Tower, Bazooka and Cosmos winter barley.
The two-row varieties were sown at 200kg/ha, the hybrid was sown at 110kg/ha while the six-row conventional was sown at 188kg/ha.
More crow troubles
Crow damage has also been particularly severe in Galway this year for an unknown reason according to John. They appear to be going after the seed and leaving shoots behind. As a result, John had to increase his seeding rate in anticipation of losses. All seed was treated with Redigo Deter and/or Raxil Star and rolled after.
His fodder crops continue to develop well, with the first of his fodder rape and leafy turnip expected to be grazed in December.
On the contracting front, autumn jobs such as hedge-cutting, lime, slurry and dung spreading are keeping John and his crew busy. The last of the silage was finished on Saturday. There is a notable increase in lime being spread in the area this autumn as conditions are excellent. Lime is spread at 5-7.5t/ha depending on the ground.
“The fine weather makes getting through the work a lot easier with no big stress.”
Read more
Tillage management: ground conditions continue to give planting opportunities
Analysis: are we entering a period of fertiliser price rises?
This week we revisit growers from Wexford, Laois and Galway. All growers have either finished or are close to finishing their autumn sowing campaigns. Ground conditions remain excellent which made applying autumn herbicides a breeze. One comment from all growers stands out this year however. All growers are noticing a higher than usual amount of crows causing damage to winter cereals. Stephen Robb reports.
Ballycarney, Co Wexford
Excellent conditions continue to prevail in Ballycarney. The sun was shining when we paid a visit to Julian last week as he was applying an autumn herbicide on winter barley. The full video of our visit can be seen on the Irish Farmers Journal website.
Conditions at time of sowing were very dry explains Julian, and some ground needed moisture to help with germination. This moisture arrived last Saturday week with storm Callum as 40mm of rain was dumped on the farm. The ground was once again trafficable by Monday however. Temperatures remain mild during the day and cool at night.
Julian Ashmore spraying Fence (0.3l/ha) and Diflanil (0.25l/ha) on his Cassia winter barley.
Julian began sowing Cassia winter barley on 30 September at 180kg/ha. He began sowing Husky winter oats on 9 October at 140kg/ha. Crop establishment in the winter barley has been very high this year and he expects the same with oats. No fertiliser was sown with the seed but Julian suspects that there may be residues of last season’s fertiliser still in the soil, especially on spring crops which yielded very poorly.
Crow damage visible
Crow damage has been particularly severe in the winter oats this year. He has a number of kites set up as a deterrent. “I’ve never seen crows as active as this year, the seed is well-covered but they still find it and follow the row,” explains Julian.
While rolling post-sowing is a help, they still find their way to the seed he remarks. Julian sprayed his winter barley last week with Fence which containing Flufenacet (0.3l/ha) and Diflanil (0.25l/ha) along with 160l of water per hectare at the two-leaved stage. He was targeting mainly grassweeds, cleavers and groundsel. He runs 03 flat-fan nozzles at 2.5-3 bar pressure in order to create a fine enough spray to get adequate amounts of active on the seedling weeds.
He doesn’t envisage having to spray winter oats with a herbicide this autumn. “The crop can usually get ahead of the grassweeds, it may have to get a spring herbicide however,” he stated.
His fodder rape and leafy turnip cover crops are moving along well.
“There’s still a lot of crops being planted in the area this week, mostly winter oats and winter barley.”
Portlaoise, Co Laois
Like the majority of the rest of the country, weather has made autumn-sowing operations a smooth affair in Portlaoise. We visited Eugene’s farm last week on a sunny morning to discuss his winter cereal and cover crop performance so far this year. Watch the full video on the Irish Farmers Journal website.
Eugene sowed his Carnival winter barley three weeks ago at 310seeds/ m2 with a TGW of 58g. Establishment was around 90%. The crops were sprayed with Tower (2.0l/ha) this week, targeting mainly grassweeds. He is currently contract-sowing Orval triticale for a livestock farmer who intends on whole cropping it next year. The crop will receive a post-emergence herbicide in a number of weeks. Crows have also been a burden this year on earlier-sown triticale in the area. Eugene will sow Bennington winter wheat within the next week. The field was only sprayed off with glyphosate a week ago and will be cultivated within the coming days. Hedge-cutting is progressing well and he is currently around 30% through.
Cover crop talk
Eugene’s forage rape and leafy turnip crops, which were sown on 20 August are doing well and are currently around wellie boot-height. Establishment was excellent and the crop will be grazed during the winter after a temporary fence is erected. However, if ground conditions deteriorate Eugene will pull stock off the ground and feed silage in order to prevent soil structure damage. His phacelia and vetch cover crops however are struggling.
They were sown at the start of September but the strike was poor. He initially thought herbicide residues may be the cause of the poor vigour but it is now more likely that the establishment method may have had a bigger hand to play.
This ground was first grubbed and cultivated and left for a week. Eugene thinks that the ground may have dried out too much during that week before drilling the crop.
“If the weather holds we’ll have the bulk of the sowing and spraying done within the week. I’ll then move back to hedge-cutting and focus on getting the wet ground done first.”
Ballinasloe, Co Galway
The settled spell is also dominating the weather in the west and ground conditions remain excellent. Last Saturday week was the first very wet day in a long time explains John, but by the following Monday field work had recommenced. Daytime temperatures of up to 15°C are helping to drive crop growth while frosty nights are helping to keep it in check.
The bulk of the contract sowing is complete while all of his own crops are now sown. Galway appears to be following the general cropping trend this autumn with the area of winter barley increasing significantly.
John Daly has been busy spreading lime on contract this autumn as ground conditions remain excellent.
“Any ground which would take winter barley was put into winter barley,” explains John. As a result, securing seed in a timely fashion has been a challenge.
John would usually start sowing around 25 September but didn’t start this year until 3 October due in part to seed availability.
Luckily though, he was busy at silage around this time. Autumn sowing went smoothly having sown varieties Cassia, Tower, Bazooka and Cosmos winter barley.
The two-row varieties were sown at 200kg/ha, the hybrid was sown at 110kg/ha while the six-row conventional was sown at 188kg/ha.
More crow troubles
Crow damage has also been particularly severe in Galway this year for an unknown reason according to John. They appear to be going after the seed and leaving shoots behind. As a result, John had to increase his seeding rate in anticipation of losses. All seed was treated with Redigo Deter and/or Raxil Star and rolled after.
His fodder crops continue to develop well, with the first of his fodder rape and leafy turnip expected to be grazed in December.
On the contracting front, autumn jobs such as hedge-cutting, lime, slurry and dung spreading are keeping John and his crew busy. The last of the silage was finished on Saturday. There is a notable increase in lime being spread in the area this autumn as conditions are excellent. Lime is spread at 5-7.5t/ha depending on the ground.
“The fine weather makes getting through the work a lot easier with no big stress.”
Read more
Tillage management: ground conditions continue to give planting opportunities
Analysis: are we entering a period of fertiliser price rises?
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