BYDV hits late-sown spring barley

Crops are growing strongly in Kildare in the warm weather and with lots of moisture available as the area has received over 150mm of rain since 20 May. Heavy thunderstorms led to 43mm of rain on 14 June.

The winter oats and rye are 5’ 10” tall as no growth regulators or fungicides were applied. The oats have a large amount of mildew and crown rust but it has remained confined to the lower leaves. Some rust has started to come onto the lower leaves of the rye, but it is still remarkably clean.

Ramularia is beginning to hit the winter barley but it is staying greener for longer than what Gary expected.

Crows have been the biggest issue so far this year. A couple of spring barley plots planted in the autumn have been fully decimated despite a number of deterrents that were put in place. They have also attacked some of the spring crops, with beans, maize, sunflowers, and some cereals being worst affected.

The last of the spring crops have now been planted. They should be green in September for teaching purposes.

The spring barley has a lot of BYDV in it, while a heritage variety has BYDV, mildew and a small bit of brown rust. The buckwheat, camelina, lentils, linseed, and triticale are the pick of the less common crops so far. The buckwheat is in full flower with the camelina and lupins beginning to flower too.

A long-term crop establishment trial at UCD Lyons Farm which is in winter barley this year is showing that the no-till plots retained more moisture during the dry spell in May.

The no-till plots are also about a week behind the plough and min-till plots. The effects of both of these will not be known until harvest, which will not occur until all plots are ripe.

The harvest is still three weeks away in Kilkenny, and the winter oats will follow quite quickly behind the barley.

The winter wheat received its T3 fungicide during flowering. This consisted of Decoy and Comet as a little bit of yellow rust was still in the crop that Tom wanted to tidy up. Despite this, the wheat is full of potential and Tom is looking for lots of sunshine now to fill up the grains.

Tom has some very good spring barley and some that is quite poor. The poorer barley was sowed around the time of the heavy rains, about three weeks later than the early barley. The poor barley is also quite short.

The barley has remained very clean and straw quality looks very good. The T2 fungicide consisted of Balaya and Imperis. There is a small amount of BYDV in the crop but Tom is not concerned about it.

The maize received a herbicide of Calaris and Accent recently. The Accent was included to tidy up grassweeds as a lot of the maize was after a grass cover crop that was baled.

The maize looks good, it has 4 to 5 leaves and is standing between 1’ and 2’ tall.

Irrigation continues on the potatoes. There has been very variable rainfall in the area so some crops have needed a lot more than others. Blight sprays are being applied every seven days at present. The potatoes look good but Tom says there is a long way to go and you just never know with potatoes.

The post-emergence herbicides have been finished on the carrots and irrigation will begin this week. They are receiving an insecticide and a fungicide every 10 days. Tom says he was lucky that his carrot crops escaped capping at emergence as he has heard of other crops being affected.

Victor’s farm reached a scorching 31.5°C last Friday. There hasn’t been too much rain recently, but just enough to keep crops going.

The spring wheat looks promising. It sped through stem extension once rain arrived at the end of May. Yellow rust came into the crop very quickly too, but Victor cleaned it up with a spray of tebuconazole, Elatus Era, and Amistar. He says he never saw yellow rust in his area ever before.

The wheat then received a flag leaf spray of Revystar, folpet, and EPSO Combitop.

The spring barley now has lots of BYDV in it, and there is a huge amount of aphids and ladybirds in the fields.

The Gretchen barley is disappointing to look at. It is quite leggy but has not tillered well.

The Geraldine barley is better and seems to be a nice thick crop. The barley received Proline, Amistar, CeCeCe 750 and EPSO Combitop when it reached GS30. It is now in stem extension and is growing quite quickly.

Victor says the barley was rolled after emergence. He can still see the tractor tyre marks in the field, so he thinks the soil was still a bit vulnerable at the time, despite appearing quite dry.

The spring beans were doing well during the dry spell in May.

However, when the rain came, they became yellow and started to die off. Victor is still investigating the cause, but he says a couple of fields have now completely recovered and look very good.

The other two fields nearly died off completely, but Victor says that the plants are now sending up new shoots.

While there will be a big yield hit, Victor hopes that there will still be a crop to harvest from these fields, even if it will now be quite late in the year.