Wet again

The rain of recent days has certainly wetted any land that had been soaking well in early January. Rainfall amounts vary by a factor of four nationally and by more than two in the tillage areas. But land is now wet so there is little point in thinking about what needs to be done for the moment, unless you still need slug pellets.

Growth continues

While the forecast indicates a cold snap this week, we have been seeing occasional growth over the past few weeks, enough to help make crops look better and fuller and thankfully most do not appear to be suffering from pest attack. Most crops look very well, especially later-sown ones, and these will hopefully continue to improve in the occasional growth windows.

US internship

An opportunity to spend part of 2018 learning the intricacies of large-scale intensive farming in the US should appeal to anyone intending to enter the grain industry. This is once again possible through the ITLUS/UAS/Rosenbohm internship.

For anyone interested, application forms need to be in by 26 January. Further details and application forms are available on:

www.itlus.ie/itlusrosenbohm-internship/2018-itlus-rosenbohm-farm-internship-application/

Management: Planning and soil testing

The challenge of clearing 2017’s unharvested crops

Wet brings all field operations to a halt

With land unpassable once again, it is important to get other office and workshop jobs done during this slack period as things will get very busy when the weather improves.