Brian Crowley

Ballycotton, Co Cork

With only 38mm of precipitation in March and 1.5mm in April until 9mm fell last Sunday night and Monday, it has been a dry time in Cork. Brian always tries to plant crops into moisture as you never know how long a dry spell will last.

All of the spring barley is now up; Brian doesn’t remember being finished so early. Due to the dry spell and windy conditions, the spring crops are being top dressed with liquid fertiliser.

The spring wheat received 360l/ha of 24N + 3S, the equivalent of 88 unit/ac, while the spring barley received 330l/ha of the same fertiliser (80 units/ac). Brian has seen very little scorch from the liquid fertiliser, and finds it very easy to use.

Brian is currently planting beet through minimum tillage in lovely conditions and should be finished the last of the hire work by the end of the week. All fields got farmyard manure and slurry before being min-tilled. Enermax was the main variety planted, but the Conviso Smart Sanya variety was drilled in one field with a known wild beet problem. This will allow the wild beet to be controlled.

Spraying is the other main job at present. The winter barley received its T1 fungicide application last week. It contained LS Pyrac (0.6l/ha), Prostar (0.5l/ha), Mancozin (1.6l/ha), and CeCeCe 750 (2l/ha). The early-sown Integral is more advanced than the other crops of

barley.

The winter wheat received a plant growth regulator and herbicide last week too. The winter oilseed rape is only starting to flower after being heavily grazed by

pigeons.

The spring beans have established very well. Brian sprayed some of the beans with an insecticide because there was significant levels of notching on them. He thinks that this is because there are a lot of trees around the fields and the beans were direct drilled.

Donald Logue

Muff, Co Donegal

Donald cannot believe that the spring has worked out so smoothly in Donegal, with good weather and no machinery issues at all on his farm. He says that getting his crops in early will bring benefits for the rest of the year, as the harvest will likely be earlier.

Donald planted the remainder of his organic potatoes last week. All of the potatoes are the variety Kelly. The early potatoes have not emerged yet, and that is ok with Donald as he does not want them to get hit with any late frosts.

There are about 1.5ac of early potatoes and 4.5ac of maincrop in total. Donald says that this is

plenty for his one-man operation. He is also grading the last of the ware potatoes to get them ready for sale.

The organic combi crop was also planted last week. This year, Donald planted a mixture of barley, oats, peas, and beans. The seed was bought as straights and mixed on-farm. The seeding rates of each individual crop were 125kg/ha of barley, 62kg/ha of oats, 31kg/ha of peas, and 31kg/ha of beans. The crop was planted straight into the ploughed ground by a one-pass. A front press was also used for consolidation and further seedbed preparation. The ground was in great condition with the dry weather.

Donald applied between eight and 10t/ac of compost on the combi-crop and potato ground. This compost consists of farmyard manure and hen dung. There is a high nitrogen content in the hen dung and this helps to break down the straw in the farmyard manure. The mixture contains approximately 4.5 units N, seven units P, and 15 units K in every tonne.

Work is ongoing in the polytunnels to prepare them for planting. The soil has been loosened and dung or compost will now be spread and rotavated in. Germinated plants of Brussels sprout and cabbage have also been ordered and will be planted out in a few weeks’ time.

Denis Dunne

Faithlegg, Co Waterford

Denis is the Trials Manager for Seedtech in Waterford. The trial site consists of 195ac of leased land in Faithlegg. Of this, 65ac is for grass and maize research, run by DLF, while the rest is under arable crops.

Denis runs trials in all the main arable crops, winter wheat, barley, oats and oil seed rape. There are also trials in spring beans, barley, oats and wheat. There can also be more niche crops from time to time such as spelt, peas, lupins, and more. The focus of most of the trials is variety screening and selection.