Barty O’Connor, Clohamon,
Co Wexford
Barty’s farm has received just 20mm of rain since the weather broke, and he expects another 15mm to fall this week. While this will carry crops forward for a while, he says the ground is still quite dry.
The winter barley is starting to turn nicely and it has a nice colour to it. He says that it should be ripe a bit earlier than usual, and expects it to be cut before 15 July. Last year, the harvest began 10 days later than this.
Barty also expects to cut some spring barley in July. On lighter soils, the crop has thinned out a good bit recently as tillers died out in the dry weather, and the crop is not much thicker on heavier soils. However, he says that crops in south Wexford are struggling a lot more than his own. The T2 fungicide was applied to the spring barley recently when the awns were fully out.
This spray application included Balaya at 1l/ha, Imperis at 1l/ha, Mirror at 1.25l/ha, and EPSO Combitop at 4kg/ha. Barty has entered some of his barley into the Straw Incorporation Measure as the crop is very short and he does not expect a large volume of straw from it.
The spring oats are beginning to head out, and therefore are at the ideal stage for the final fungicide. When speaking to him earlier this week, he was waiting for the wind to die down so Elatus Era (0.75l/ha) could be applied. The crop looks decent but there is still a long time to go until harvest.
He recently worked out his costs for the year. Seed, fertiliser, and spray costs were coming to €305/ac for spring barley.
With high yields not expected, and grain prices at a lower level than recent years, Barty feels that there won’t be too much left over for the farmer this year.
Pa Shine, Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary
The recent rain was welcomed in Tipperary, but Pa says that his area did not receive too much overall. But will still help the crops push on for the next couple of weeks at least.
He is up to date with his sprayer work and is coming to the end of his fungicide programmes.
The winter wheat is receiving its head spray at the moment. This consists of Comet 200 at 0.6l/ha and Osiris Pro at 1l/ha. The wheat has remained fairly clean, but the Graham is a bit dirtier so far. Pa remarks that they are far cleaner than this time last year.
The spring barley is also receiving its final fungicide at the awns emerging stage. Nyviar (0.75l/ha), Serpent (0.75l/ha), Mirror (1.2l/ha), and Precision Bio Mag (1.2l/ha) were included in the tank mix.
He says that this is two weeks earlier than usual. The crop looks OK, but the rain came a bit too late for the crop and it has thinned out a bit in the last week or two.
The spring oats were sown early and have come through the dry spell in decent shape. He is happy that he didn’t hit the crop hard with the first growth regulator, and he only applied a light rate of Medax Max for the second growth regulator due to the dry spell.
The winter barley is well into grain fill at this stage. Pa says the crop looks well, and expects harvest to start around 7 to 10 July. The winter oats are quite advanced and will probably only be a few days behind this.
With some of the spring barley quite advanced, he expects it to be cut in July, which means that the whole harvest will be quite early and condensed, making fine weather in July even more important this year.
Pa's Belfry winter barley is filling its grains nicely.
Shaun Diver, Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly
There has been serious rain in the past couple of weeks in Tullamore, and it was all welcomed as growth had started to become restricted.
The spring barley is flying it since it got a nice soak. Shaun top-dressed the crop before the rain came to ensure it was washed in quickly and taken up by the crop before it gets too forward. The field after peas got a bag/ac of CAN, while a field after grass got 1.5bags/ac of CAN.
The barley got sprayed with an aphicide (Sparviero at 50ml/ha) and herbicide (Quantum Max SX at 60g/ha and Echo Pro at 0.75l/ha) recently. Trace elements (Triple Max at 2l/ha and Epsom Salts at 4kg/ha) were also included as there may have been some nutrient deficiencies in the crop during the dry weather. Despite this, Shaun says the crop looks quite good and the rain came just in time so the crop was not too badly affected.
The combi-crop of oats, barley, and peas has established well. The peas were slightly behind but they have come through well in the past week. The combi-crop received an aphicide too. He would have liked to avoid applying an aphicide, especially as peas are a flowering crop and require pollination, but there was a lot of aphid activity in the crop, so he felt that he had to act.
This is likely to be the only run of the sprayer through the field, and the combi-crop will now be left to grow until harvest. Shaun is hoping it will bulk up quite nicely with the recent rain, helping it to make a good quality wholecrop silage.
Away from the budding tillage enterprise on the farm, the first-cut silage has been cut and ensiled, slurry has been spread and was washed in by the rain. Shaun will now spread two bags/ac of Cut Sward this week.
The combi-crop of barley, oats, and peas has established well on Tullamore Farm.
Barty O’Connor, Clohamon,
Co Wexford
Barty’s farm has received just 20mm of rain since the weather broke, and he expects another 15mm to fall this week. While this will carry crops forward for a while, he says the ground is still quite dry.
The winter barley is starting to turn nicely and it has a nice colour to it. He says that it should be ripe a bit earlier than usual, and expects it to be cut before 15 July. Last year, the harvest began 10 days later than this.
Barty also expects to cut some spring barley in July. On lighter soils, the crop has thinned out a good bit recently as tillers died out in the dry weather, and the crop is not much thicker on heavier soils. However, he says that crops in south Wexford are struggling a lot more than his own. The T2 fungicide was applied to the spring barley recently when the awns were fully out.
This spray application included Balaya at 1l/ha, Imperis at 1l/ha, Mirror at 1.25l/ha, and EPSO Combitop at 4kg/ha. Barty has entered some of his barley into the Straw Incorporation Measure as the crop is very short and he does not expect a large volume of straw from it.
The spring oats are beginning to head out, and therefore are at the ideal stage for the final fungicide. When speaking to him earlier this week, he was waiting for the wind to die down so Elatus Era (0.75l/ha) could be applied. The crop looks decent but there is still a long time to go until harvest.
He recently worked out his costs for the year. Seed, fertiliser, and spray costs were coming to €305/ac for spring barley.
With high yields not expected, and grain prices at a lower level than recent years, Barty feels that there won’t be too much left over for the farmer this year.
Pa Shine, Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary
The recent rain was welcomed in Tipperary, but Pa says that his area did not receive too much overall. But will still help the crops push on for the next couple of weeks at least.
He is up to date with his sprayer work and is coming to the end of his fungicide programmes.
The winter wheat is receiving its head spray at the moment. This consists of Comet 200 at 0.6l/ha and Osiris Pro at 1l/ha. The wheat has remained fairly clean, but the Graham is a bit dirtier so far. Pa remarks that they are far cleaner than this time last year.
The spring barley is also receiving its final fungicide at the awns emerging stage. Nyviar (0.75l/ha), Serpent (0.75l/ha), Mirror (1.2l/ha), and Precision Bio Mag (1.2l/ha) were included in the tank mix.
He says that this is two weeks earlier than usual. The crop looks OK, but the rain came a bit too late for the crop and it has thinned out a bit in the last week or two.
The spring oats were sown early and have come through the dry spell in decent shape. He is happy that he didn’t hit the crop hard with the first growth regulator, and he only applied a light rate of Medax Max for the second growth regulator due to the dry spell.
The winter barley is well into grain fill at this stage. Pa says the crop looks well, and expects harvest to start around 7 to 10 July. The winter oats are quite advanced and will probably only be a few days behind this.
With some of the spring barley quite advanced, he expects it to be cut in July, which means that the whole harvest will be quite early and condensed, making fine weather in July even more important this year.
Pa's Belfry winter barley is filling its grains nicely.
Shaun Diver, Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly
There has been serious rain in the past couple of weeks in Tullamore, and it was all welcomed as growth had started to become restricted.
The spring barley is flying it since it got a nice soak. Shaun top-dressed the crop before the rain came to ensure it was washed in quickly and taken up by the crop before it gets too forward. The field after peas got a bag/ac of CAN, while a field after grass got 1.5bags/ac of CAN.
The barley got sprayed with an aphicide (Sparviero at 50ml/ha) and herbicide (Quantum Max SX at 60g/ha and Echo Pro at 0.75l/ha) recently. Trace elements (Triple Max at 2l/ha and Epsom Salts at 4kg/ha) were also included as there may have been some nutrient deficiencies in the crop during the dry weather. Despite this, Shaun says the crop looks quite good and the rain came just in time so the crop was not too badly affected.
The combi-crop of oats, barley, and peas has established well. The peas were slightly behind but they have come through well in the past week. The combi-crop received an aphicide too. He would have liked to avoid applying an aphicide, especially as peas are a flowering crop and require pollination, but there was a lot of aphid activity in the crop, so he felt that he had to act.
This is likely to be the only run of the sprayer through the field, and the combi-crop will now be left to grow until harvest. Shaun is hoping it will bulk up quite nicely with the recent rain, helping it to make a good quality wholecrop silage.
Away from the budding tillage enterprise on the farm, the first-cut silage has been cut and ensiled, slurry has been spread and was washed in by the rain. Shaun will now spread two bags/ac of Cut Sward this week.
The combi-crop of barley, oats, and peas has established well on Tullamore Farm.
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