Meet Don Somers, Signpost farmer
Don Somers, Signpost farmer, has a lot of field operations complete for the main crops on the farm. Winter oilseed rape crops are looking very good overall with all field work complete. There is some club root present, due to growing short term brassica type cover crops in the rotation. Don has more
Don is a tillage farmer from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford who farms collaboratively with his uncle James Somers sharing both machinery and labour resources. (photo Patrick Browne)
Crops are established on the farm via non inversion with a tined cultivator with a small area of winter barley direct drilled in autumn 2021 autumn.
Crops grown on the farm include:
- winter wheat
- winter barley
- winter oats
- winter oilseed rape
- spring beans
- spring barley.
Don's June update
My winter wheat is looking good and the last application of nitrogen was applied using an N sensor & variable rate N application and this looks to have worked well to date.
Organic Manure
To date has a lot of field operations is complete for the main crops on the farm. The wet and windy weather conditions in late May have favoured the utilisation of organic manures by spring crops. Crops have a good colour indicating a good release of manure N earlier in the season due to the moist soil conditions. In other years gone by the organic manure N release has been later due to dry conditions therefore impacting on grain proteins especially for quality crops such as malting barley.
Winter Crops
Winter oilseed rape crops are looking very good overall with all field work complete. There is some club root present which is been put down to growing short term brassica type cover crops in the rotation. My winter wheat is looking good and the last application of nitrogen was applied using an N sensor & variable rate N application and this looks to have worked well to date. The yield monitor on the combine will tell the full story and the value of variable rate N application. Winter wheat’s have received there leaf 3 spray and disease control look good. Winter barley was directed drilled this year and is quite variable compared to previous crops. Crop lost a number of tillers over the winter period as there was a level of slug damage which may have been due to the heavy cover crop.
Spring Barley
Spring barley is looking very good with the first fungicide application complete. There is a level of BYDV present in the crop as we didn’t use an aphidicide as it was early sown plus the aphid traps (yellow bowls) showed low levels of BYDV transferring aphids plus high levels of beneficial predators at time of sampling. I have estimated that there is ~ 1 to 2% BYDV infection which will not impact on final grain yield. Disease levels are low in my spring barley but the T2 fungicide is not far away, crop disease levels will be assessed at awns peeping and will be the basis for my 2nd fungicide application. Currently I am looking at cover crop mixes following my spring barley for the 2nd half of August. I have had some issues with slugs in spring barley where I had cover crops of rye and phacelia. This year I will aim to remove cover crops earlier to reduce slug issues in the following winter & spring crops. I am looking at including more oilseed rape in the rotation due to higher margins and will consider this when selecting cover crop mixes for the coming season.
Learn more about Don Somers farm here | Find out more about the Teagasc Signpost Programme