Brian Crowley, Ballycotton,
Co Cork
With a wide variety of crops being grown, there is always something on the list for spraying in Cork. Crops have progressed well with the warm weather. There was 96.5mm of rain between 18 and 26 April and crops have leapt out of the ground since.
The Integral winter barley is the most advanced of the varieties and it got a final head spray of Imperis XE (0.92l/ha), Revycare (0.98l/ha), and Mirror (1.21l/ha) last week. The KWS Tardis and Craft winter barley will be sprayed this week and the gates will be closed until harvest.
The winter wheat is starting to stretch and got it’s leaf three spray a couple of weeks ago. This consisted of Medax Max (0.34kg/ha), Revystar XL (1.5l/ha), LS Pyrac (0.51l/ha), and Mirror (1.5l/ha). The crop is clean, with only some septoria at the base of the crop, and Brian says that this is typical of crops in his area.
The winter oilseed rape is well into flowering and got it final spray of Shepherd (0.8l/ha) and Precision Bio Mag (1.93l/ha) at the start of petal fall recently.
In the last week of April, all of the spring barley got run through with weed sprays.
This consisted of Axial Pro (0.58l/ha), Universe (0.97l/ha), Cameo Max (50g/ha), insecticide LS Tarak (0.05l/ha) and manganese (1.93l/ha). The spring barley crops look very good, clean, and are tillering well. The odd yellow spot is present in corners and around gates due to the dry weather and soil compaction.
A T1 fungicide of Comet 200 (0.6 l/ha) and Navura (1l/ha) was applied on to most of the spring barley last week.
The Conviso smart beet got the first herbicide last week also. The fields are starting to green up already with a super plant stand of beet.
Donald Logue, Muff, Co Donegal
There had been no rain at Donald Logue’s farm for at least three weeks before light rain on Sunday night and Monday morning arrived, but it hardly wet the soil at all.
His organic potatoes are just starting to peek through the ground. He recently gave them their first run of the weeder. He then went through the potatoes a second time to form the drills back up.
The weeder will be used in another two or three runs before the potato canopy closes over to keep the weeds at bay. Any further weeds should be smothered out by the potatoes.
The combi-crop of barley, oats, peas, and beans has germinated very well. The crop looks nice and uniform, and the species seem to be dispersed well. The beans are very noticeable and are flying it, while the peas have been slower to establish, but Donald expects them to push on this week.
While the combi-crop is doing well on heavier ground, it is starting to struggle with a lack of moisture on lighter free-draining soil. The crop is quite clean except for some docks in one field. Donald says this is due to deep cultivation last year when preparing for potatoes.
He is rotavating the polytunnels this week to get ready to plant tomatoes. The Brussels sprouts and cabbages will also be planted in drills soon.
As it is relatively quiet on the farm at present, Donald is taking the time to prepare a fertility plan for the back end of the year.
Being an organic farmer, it is very important for him to put a plan in place as there are no quick fixes available if the fertility is not in the soil. He hopes to import some farmyard manure and compost soon so he can let it rot before spreading.
Donald weeded his potato drills recently and formed the drills again afterwards.
Denis Dunne, Faithlegg,
Co Waterford
Crops are looking clean in Waterford at present after the current spell of good weather. The total rainfall for the year up to 8 May is 370mm compared to 420mm last year and a four-year average of 310mm.
The winter barley is now finished its spray programme. Most varieties are at the middle to the end of flowering with some of the later lines only starting to flower. Disease is low in general. The biggest disease in the untreated plots is mildew with septoria nodorum seen earlier in the year keeping to the base of the crop.
For now, Rhynchosporium and brown rust levels appear to be low on the trial site.
The winter wheat flag leaf is 80-90% emerged and will probably get its flag leaf spray of Inatreq and folpet by the weekend.
Disease levels are low with no signs of rust or mildew currently. Septoria is present but pressure is low. Treated plots have four clean leaves currently with up to 5% infection on leaf five. Untreated plots have up to 30% infection on leaf five and up to 5% on leaf four on some lines, others have a clean leaf four.
Winter oats have the ear 50% emerged and will get a head spray of Elatus era (1l/ha) with Final K (2.5l/ha) to help increase the specific weight. The crop is exceptionally clean and there are no visible signs of disease.
Winter oilseed rape has started to lose its yellow colour. The crop has good potential and will get an application of Omex’s Oilseed Extra foliar nitrogen once the petals have fallen to help boost yield.
Early-sown spring wheat and oats are at GS31 and received herbicide, fungicide, and growth regulator two weeks ago at late tillering. A follow-up growth regulator will be applied this week at GS32 to the oats.
Spring barley is at GS30 and got Cameo Max, Galaxy, and Boogie (1l/ha) last week. The growth regulator was held and applied this week due to the high swings in temperature seen last week.
KWS Joyau planted at three different timings at the Seedtech trial site. The awns are emerging on the 1 November sown crop (left); the barley is beginning to flower on 3 October sown crop (right); while 12 September sown crop is finished flowering and has began grain fill (centre).
Brian Crowley, Ballycotton,
Co Cork
With a wide variety of crops being grown, there is always something on the list for spraying in Cork. Crops have progressed well with the warm weather. There was 96.5mm of rain between 18 and 26 April and crops have leapt out of the ground since.
The Integral winter barley is the most advanced of the varieties and it got a final head spray of Imperis XE (0.92l/ha), Revycare (0.98l/ha), and Mirror (1.21l/ha) last week. The KWS Tardis and Craft winter barley will be sprayed this week and the gates will be closed until harvest.
The winter wheat is starting to stretch and got it’s leaf three spray a couple of weeks ago. This consisted of Medax Max (0.34kg/ha), Revystar XL (1.5l/ha), LS Pyrac (0.51l/ha), and Mirror (1.5l/ha). The crop is clean, with only some septoria at the base of the crop, and Brian says that this is typical of crops in his area.
The winter oilseed rape is well into flowering and got it final spray of Shepherd (0.8l/ha) and Precision Bio Mag (1.93l/ha) at the start of petal fall recently.
In the last week of April, all of the spring barley got run through with weed sprays.
This consisted of Axial Pro (0.58l/ha), Universe (0.97l/ha), Cameo Max (50g/ha), insecticide LS Tarak (0.05l/ha) and manganese (1.93l/ha). The spring barley crops look very good, clean, and are tillering well. The odd yellow spot is present in corners and around gates due to the dry weather and soil compaction.
A T1 fungicide of Comet 200 (0.6 l/ha) and Navura (1l/ha) was applied on to most of the spring barley last week.
The Conviso smart beet got the first herbicide last week also. The fields are starting to green up already with a super plant stand of beet.
Donald Logue, Muff, Co Donegal
There had been no rain at Donald Logue’s farm for at least three weeks before light rain on Sunday night and Monday morning arrived, but it hardly wet the soil at all.
His organic potatoes are just starting to peek through the ground. He recently gave them their first run of the weeder. He then went through the potatoes a second time to form the drills back up.
The weeder will be used in another two or three runs before the potato canopy closes over to keep the weeds at bay. Any further weeds should be smothered out by the potatoes.
The combi-crop of barley, oats, peas, and beans has germinated very well. The crop looks nice and uniform, and the species seem to be dispersed well. The beans are very noticeable and are flying it, while the peas have been slower to establish, but Donald expects them to push on this week.
While the combi-crop is doing well on heavier ground, it is starting to struggle with a lack of moisture on lighter free-draining soil. The crop is quite clean except for some docks in one field. Donald says this is due to deep cultivation last year when preparing for potatoes.
He is rotavating the polytunnels this week to get ready to plant tomatoes. The Brussels sprouts and cabbages will also be planted in drills soon.
As it is relatively quiet on the farm at present, Donald is taking the time to prepare a fertility plan for the back end of the year.
Being an organic farmer, it is very important for him to put a plan in place as there are no quick fixes available if the fertility is not in the soil. He hopes to import some farmyard manure and compost soon so he can let it rot before spreading.
Donald weeded his potato drills recently and formed the drills again afterwards.
Denis Dunne, Faithlegg,
Co Waterford
Crops are looking clean in Waterford at present after the current spell of good weather. The total rainfall for the year up to 8 May is 370mm compared to 420mm last year and a four-year average of 310mm.
The winter barley is now finished its spray programme. Most varieties are at the middle to the end of flowering with some of the later lines only starting to flower. Disease is low in general. The biggest disease in the untreated plots is mildew with septoria nodorum seen earlier in the year keeping to the base of the crop.
For now, Rhynchosporium and brown rust levels appear to be low on the trial site.
The winter wheat flag leaf is 80-90% emerged and will probably get its flag leaf spray of Inatreq and folpet by the weekend.
Disease levels are low with no signs of rust or mildew currently. Septoria is present but pressure is low. Treated plots have four clean leaves currently with up to 5% infection on leaf five. Untreated plots have up to 30% infection on leaf five and up to 5% on leaf four on some lines, others have a clean leaf four.
Winter oats have the ear 50% emerged and will get a head spray of Elatus era (1l/ha) with Final K (2.5l/ha) to help increase the specific weight. The crop is exceptionally clean and there are no visible signs of disease.
Winter oilseed rape has started to lose its yellow colour. The crop has good potential and will get an application of Omex’s Oilseed Extra foliar nitrogen once the petals have fallen to help boost yield.
Early-sown spring wheat and oats are at GS31 and received herbicide, fungicide, and growth regulator two weeks ago at late tillering. A follow-up growth regulator will be applied this week at GS32 to the oats.
Spring barley is at GS30 and got Cameo Max, Galaxy, and Boogie (1l/ha) last week. The growth regulator was held and applied this week due to the high swings in temperature seen last week.
KWS Joyau planted at three different timings at the Seedtech trial site. The awns are emerging on the 1 November sown crop (left); the barley is beginning to flower on 3 October sown crop (right); while 12 September sown crop is finished flowering and has began grain fill (centre).
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