Spring sowing: Growers take advantage of good conditions

Drilling of spring crops has begun much earlier, in many parts of the country, than normal in 2023, with conditions as good as those you would normally expect at the end of March, Teagasc Crops Specialist Shay Phelan discusses more in this article.

The dry weather is forecast up until the middle of next week, so growers are taking advantage of the conditions with the expectation that - on lighter soils - most spring bean crops and malting barley crops will be drilled by mid-March. However, on heavier soils, especially where min-till or no till systems are used, the advice is to wait until soils are ready before drilling; this will ensure that the crops get the best start in these fields as possible. As a general rule of thumb, these systems will take between 7-10 days to be ready after those who use plough-based systems.

Seed rates will need to be adjusted according to the thousand-grain weight of the seed, this can change from seed batch to seed batch and it should be printed on all bags being used. To accurately calculate the seed rate required Teagasc has a ready reckoner on our website, which calculates the seed rate based on different TGWs.  This can be found here. Teagasc has also produced a video showing the importance of thousand grain weights on seed rates and this is available below.

Winter Barley

Most crops have received the first application of fertiliser for the year in the last week. Crops that have yet to receive any fertiliser should do so in the coming week. Other jobs that will need to be completed in the coming days may well be tidying up weed control, wild oat control, fungicide, trace elements and/or plant growth regulator application. Avoid mixing all the chemistry together in one tank, as the weather in the coming week is predicted to be cold at night; this will scorch crops where complicated mixes are applied.

Many crops have wild oats or tame oats visible above the canopy. These should get priority as you must wait 21 days after an application of a SU herbicide (e.g. Cameo Max) before applying Axial Pro herbicide for wild oat control. However, you can apply Axial Pro with PGRs, so these should be applied when the crop reaches GS 30. Watch out for diseases such as net blotch and rynchosporium in certain varieties; where these are evident you can apply a fungicide such as Siltra or Decoy/Comet at half rates. Leave the crop for 7-10 days before applying a herbicide and or trace elements if needed.

Winter wheat

Many early sown winter wheat crops are approaching GS 30 and will soon need to receive their compound fertiliser application. While most tillage farmers have some ordered, many are waiting for prices to drop which looks unlikely in the coming weeks. This will need to be organised in the coming days, as most fertiliser - be it compound and nitrogen fertilisers - will be applied on tillage farms in the next 6-8 weeks.

Winter Oilseed Rape

Most crops are well into stem elongation, with those that received organic manures before drilling looking particularly good at the moment. The more backward crops have already received their first application of nitrogen with the second application due in the coming days, especially where pigeons are still posing a problem. The rate of nitrogen applied will depend on the GAI, but will range from 130kg/ha on the very backward crops to perhaps as little 40-50kg/ha on the crops with big canopies. The target is to have a GAI of 3.5 at the start of flowering, which is the equivalent of 175kg/ha of nitrogen. Hold back approximately 35-50kg/ha until early April, or as late as it can be accurately spread, for seed fill. Remember to use nitrogen fertilisers with a high level of sulphur in them, e.g. ASN (26% N & 14% S) as oilseed rape needs between 25-30kg/ha of sulphur.

Green buds are starting to become visible on many crops now, so if they haven’t received a fungicide for light leaf spot control then this should be a priority. Options include Proline 0.5L/ha where no growth regulator effect is needed or Caryx 1.0 l/ha on the bigger crops.

The Tillage Edge Podcast

The Eco Scheme is part of the new CAP 2023-2027 and will make up a significant part of farmers payments this year and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Shay outlined the eight measures which farmers can choose from in 2023.

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/ 
Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com

Also read: High yields of malting barley start with the correct seeding rate