Will Stokes farms 134ha in partnership with his father Paddy near Kilsheelan in south Co Tipperary. The farm is near the Waterford border with the river Suir close by.
At a recent Teagasc Signpost farm walk, they described the business as a specialist tillage and horticulture enterprise with a wide variety of cereals, potatoes and protein crops. Approximately 10% of the land base is allocated to a beef enterprise.
The 2022 figures show that the carbon footprint of the farm was 1t CO2eq/ha. This was a reduction from 1.2t CO2eq/ha for the previous year.
The soil type is fine loamy/ brown earth.
There is a combination of establishment systems on the farm including minimum tillage and plough-based systems. A major focus for the enterprise is improving soil health and nutrient use efficiency.
Will explained that they grow “a mixture of everything”, including winter barley, winter wheat, spring barley, oats, peas, beans and potatoes.
Beans and peas
“Our rotation would be break crop, wheat, barley, break crop – so the beans and peas would be once every six years, and the same with potatoes; they are once every six years.
“We try to push out the rotation and maximise the yields within that. After the break crop, the wheat is usually a seed crop – if we can get it. The oats and spring barley are more or less fitting into holes in the rotation.”
Both min-till and ploughing are carried out on the farm. While min-till is the most desirable, Will explained that this year, in the tough weather conditions, they ended up taking out the plough again and going in with the one pass, but that “ultimately we are trying to get to 100% min-till”.
Cereal growers make their way along a tramline in a field of recently planted potatoes at a Teagasc Signpost Tillage Farm Walk on the farm of Will and Paddy Stokes, Kilsheelan, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. / O'Gorman Photography.
“We are trying to get away from the plough as much as possible, and get to a situation where we are only ploughing once every six years for the potatoes.”
He described moving away from the plough as a “leap of faith”, and “a learning curve”.
“We spoke to other people and read up on it, but it is to have the confidence that it is going to be well-established still in the springtime.”
Non-inversion system
In a non-inversion system like theirs, where min-till is carried out and there is pressure from grass weeds and other herbicide-resistant weeds, Will said this system works well.
“When you plough once every six years you get a chance to bury that seed or else you are germinating that seed through potato establishment and you are using different chemistry then to take that out.”
With regard to min-till, a tulip disc with legs is used. It is tilled a few days before going in with the Vaderstad.
“We find it a very good way of establishment, you have enough depth so moisture can get away underneath, but it is a very quick establishment.
You can get up to nine acres an hour which is a big improvement from the 3m one pass which we had before that.”
For beans, strip tilling is carried out with a Claydon drill. This works well and gets depth, according to Will and he said “we are getting very good results from that”.
Philip Kiely drilling Graham winter wheat for William Stokes in Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary. The crop was being planted after potatoes and is destined for seed for Brett Brothers. \ James Irish
With cereal and potato crops being sown on the farm, soil health and fertility are a massive focus.
Some 47% of the farm is at the agronomic optimum for overall soil fertility status. Soil sample results from 2023 show that 96% of the soil has a pH of >6.5.
Soil fertility
Lime is incorporated with peas and beans at planting, and Will said that this keeps him disciplined with applying it.
Over the past 15 years, pig slurry has been used on the farm, and is spread in autumn.
“This has been very good at bringing up the Ps and Ks, and bringing them up to a level where they are quite high.”
He acknowledged that the nitrogen use efficiency is poor at that stage, “so going forward we are going to look at putting it out in the springtime on a growing crop where the nitrogen will be used”.
Variable rate spreading is also being used. The farm is mapped every year and a sample is taken of every hectare to see where the Ps and Ks are at, and fertiliser is spread accordingly. The map takes the crop being grown in each field into consideration.
Will said that when fertiliser increased in price that this was a big saving cost-wise, and he would highly recommend it.
“It really evened out the crops and the weak parts have really come on.
“Between that and the use of pig slurry, things have been going fairly well.”
The Stokes also try to get dung back from farmers they sell straw to. However, caution is required.
“If we don’t know where the dung is from, we could be importing a weed issue, and on a min-till farm that can become quite serious quite quickly.”
Straw is chopped every year, but it is “more to do with the rotation”, Will said.
“The barley straw obviously has a financial value to it and we have established customers for a long time, so we don’t chop the barley straw, but we chop the wheaten straw where we can.
“I haven’t seen much of a difference yet but straw probably takes eight years to show up. Talking to anyone who has been continuously chopping straw and putting it back in, they can’t get over the difference it has made to the soil.”
In relation to the potatoes, the Stokes have a self-propelled harvester which has a bunk rod, so the potatoes are being carried to the headland too.
“While the machine might weigh 20 tonnes, it’s on tracks and wide wheels, so you are spreading the weight over a much larger area.
“When soils are drier, they’ll take a lot more weight, but when they’re damp, you can do so much damage.
“It’s just trying to be very careful and cautious and trying to be conscious of what you’re doing underneath your feet.”
A Sencrop weather station has been used on the farm for the past three years as a decision support tool.
The app has a record of everything going back, such as rainfall, but what is really beneficial, Will explained, is that it has its own weather forecast, you can see the different predictive models, of which there are around seven.
It gives a comparison between all the models and says which has been most accurate over the last fortnight.
“It’s all about getting information. Ultimately you have to make your own decisions, right or wrong. The more information you have, hopefully you’ll make a better decision.”
“I’ve done half with the roller and sprayed the other half off with Roundup, and they were exactly the same, so IPM- wise, the roller is the best way to do it.”
Recording pesticide use
Will is using Field Margin to record the pesticide use on the farm.
“It’s fantastic to have because previously, everything was written down on a sheet and there was a lot of paperwork involved. Whereas this is instant, it’s in your hands, and it’s ready to go.”
“As a tool going forward, it’s great. As soon as you do something, put it in, then the information is there.”
Cover crops
Phacelia and tillage radish are the cover crops mostly used on the farm. “It wouldn’t be the cheapest but the tillage radish is good for compaction, especially with potatoes in the rotation. I’d be conscious of plough pans, so we try to get something deep-rooted. If you are going to do it you may as well do something that is beneficial.”
“The roller is probably key. Some of the seeds are so fine, especially rape. To get seed-soil contact, especially at that time of year when it could be relatively dry, you really need to get in there and get a good squeeze on it.” For breaking it down, “a good frost and a roll is as good as Round up if you get the timing right, but it’s not always easy to get it right”, Will said.
Reducing field traffic
Measures taken to reduce field traffic are basic – the use of a GPS equipment for planting and keeping the tramlines in the same place over the years.
When establishing the crop, Will explained that they drive two widths of the roller around the headland, and then the main body is rolled.
“We don’t come back onto the headlands again, we turn out in the field so that we’re not double trafficking over.
“This year we had a field where the contractor was doing the rolling and you can actually see the semicircle where he double rolled it and there’s no establishment there.
“You mightn’t even think about it, but it makes a massive difference.”
Will Stokes farms 134ha in partnership with his father Paddy near Kilsheelan in south Co Tipperary. The farm is near the Waterford border with the river Suir close by.
At a recent Teagasc Signpost farm walk, they described the business as a specialist tillage and horticulture enterprise with a wide variety of cereals, potatoes and protein crops. Approximately 10% of the land base is allocated to a beef enterprise.
The 2022 figures show that the carbon footprint of the farm was 1t CO2eq/ha. This was a reduction from 1.2t CO2eq/ha for the previous year.
The soil type is fine loamy/ brown earth.
There is a combination of establishment systems on the farm including minimum tillage and plough-based systems. A major focus for the enterprise is improving soil health and nutrient use efficiency.
Will explained that they grow “a mixture of everything”, including winter barley, winter wheat, spring barley, oats, peas, beans and potatoes.
Beans and peas
“Our rotation would be break crop, wheat, barley, break crop – so the beans and peas would be once every six years, and the same with potatoes; they are once every six years.
“We try to push out the rotation and maximise the yields within that. After the break crop, the wheat is usually a seed crop – if we can get it. The oats and spring barley are more or less fitting into holes in the rotation.”
Both min-till and ploughing are carried out on the farm. While min-till is the most desirable, Will explained that this year, in the tough weather conditions, they ended up taking out the plough again and going in with the one pass, but that “ultimately we are trying to get to 100% min-till”.
Cereal growers make their way along a tramline in a field of recently planted potatoes at a Teagasc Signpost Tillage Farm Walk on the farm of Will and Paddy Stokes, Kilsheelan, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. / O'Gorman Photography.
“We are trying to get away from the plough as much as possible, and get to a situation where we are only ploughing once every six years for the potatoes.”
He described moving away from the plough as a “leap of faith”, and “a learning curve”.
“We spoke to other people and read up on it, but it is to have the confidence that it is going to be well-established still in the springtime.”
Non-inversion system
In a non-inversion system like theirs, where min-till is carried out and there is pressure from grass weeds and other herbicide-resistant weeds, Will said this system works well.
“When you plough once every six years you get a chance to bury that seed or else you are germinating that seed through potato establishment and you are using different chemistry then to take that out.”
With regard to min-till, a tulip disc with legs is used. It is tilled a few days before going in with the Vaderstad.
“We find it a very good way of establishment, you have enough depth so moisture can get away underneath, but it is a very quick establishment.
You can get up to nine acres an hour which is a big improvement from the 3m one pass which we had before that.”
For beans, strip tilling is carried out with a Claydon drill. This works well and gets depth, according to Will and he said “we are getting very good results from that”.
Philip Kiely drilling Graham winter wheat for William Stokes in Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary. The crop was being planted after potatoes and is destined for seed for Brett Brothers. \ James Irish
With cereal and potato crops being sown on the farm, soil health and fertility are a massive focus.
Some 47% of the farm is at the agronomic optimum for overall soil fertility status. Soil sample results from 2023 show that 96% of the soil has a pH of >6.5.
Soil fertility
Lime is incorporated with peas and beans at planting, and Will said that this keeps him disciplined with applying it.
Over the past 15 years, pig slurry has been used on the farm, and is spread in autumn.
“This has been very good at bringing up the Ps and Ks, and bringing them up to a level where they are quite high.”
He acknowledged that the nitrogen use efficiency is poor at that stage, “so going forward we are going to look at putting it out in the springtime on a growing crop where the nitrogen will be used”.
Variable rate spreading is also being used. The farm is mapped every year and a sample is taken of every hectare to see where the Ps and Ks are at, and fertiliser is spread accordingly. The map takes the crop being grown in each field into consideration.
Will said that when fertiliser increased in price that this was a big saving cost-wise, and he would highly recommend it.
“It really evened out the crops and the weak parts have really come on.
“Between that and the use of pig slurry, things have been going fairly well.”
The Stokes also try to get dung back from farmers they sell straw to. However, caution is required.
“If we don’t know where the dung is from, we could be importing a weed issue, and on a min-till farm that can become quite serious quite quickly.”
Straw is chopped every year, but it is “more to do with the rotation”, Will said.
“The barley straw obviously has a financial value to it and we have established customers for a long time, so we don’t chop the barley straw, but we chop the wheaten straw where we can.
“I haven’t seen much of a difference yet but straw probably takes eight years to show up. Talking to anyone who has been continuously chopping straw and putting it back in, they can’t get over the difference it has made to the soil.”
In relation to the potatoes, the Stokes have a self-propelled harvester which has a bunk rod, so the potatoes are being carried to the headland too.
“While the machine might weigh 20 tonnes, it’s on tracks and wide wheels, so you are spreading the weight over a much larger area.
“When soils are drier, they’ll take a lot more weight, but when they’re damp, you can do so much damage.
“It’s just trying to be very careful and cautious and trying to be conscious of what you’re doing underneath your feet.”
A Sencrop weather station has been used on the farm for the past three years as a decision support tool.
The app has a record of everything going back, such as rainfall, but what is really beneficial, Will explained, is that it has its own weather forecast, you can see the different predictive models, of which there are around seven.
It gives a comparison between all the models and says which has been most accurate over the last fortnight.
“It’s all about getting information. Ultimately you have to make your own decisions, right or wrong. The more information you have, hopefully you’ll make a better decision.”
“I’ve done half with the roller and sprayed the other half off with Roundup, and they were exactly the same, so IPM- wise, the roller is the best way to do it.”
Recording pesticide use
Will is using Field Margin to record the pesticide use on the farm.
“It’s fantastic to have because previously, everything was written down on a sheet and there was a lot of paperwork involved. Whereas this is instant, it’s in your hands, and it’s ready to go.”
“As a tool going forward, it’s great. As soon as you do something, put it in, then the information is there.”
Cover crops
Phacelia and tillage radish are the cover crops mostly used on the farm. “It wouldn’t be the cheapest but the tillage radish is good for compaction, especially with potatoes in the rotation. I’d be conscious of plough pans, so we try to get something deep-rooted. If you are going to do it you may as well do something that is beneficial.”
“The roller is probably key. Some of the seeds are so fine, especially rape. To get seed-soil contact, especially at that time of year when it could be relatively dry, you really need to get in there and get a good squeeze on it.” For breaking it down, “a good frost and a roll is as good as Round up if you get the timing right, but it’s not always easy to get it right”, Will said.
Reducing field traffic
Measures taken to reduce field traffic are basic – the use of a GPS equipment for planting and keeping the tramlines in the same place over the years.
When establishing the crop, Will explained that they drive two widths of the roller around the headland, and then the main body is rolled.
“We don’t come back onto the headlands again, we turn out in the field so that we’re not double trafficking over.
“This year we had a field where the contractor was doing the rolling and you can actually see the semicircle where he double rolled it and there’s no establishment there.
“You mightn’t even think about it, but it makes a massive difference.”
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