Tillage farmers are entering the business time of the year, with key crop management decisions required for both winter and spring crops.
One issue, however, has resolved itself: the recent rains have brought much needed moisture to all cropping systems.
Winter barley
According to Teagasc, most barley crops are at flag leaf stage now and, where needed, should get their final plant growth regulator (PGR) application in the coming days.
Some farmers and agronomists are allergic to only putting one chemical into a tank to do a single job, and this is often the case when something like the PGR Terpal is being applied on winter barley.
There seems to be a need to put something else in the tank to justify travelling through the crop. But, in this case, it is rarely warranted.
Growers should be aware that KWS Joyau is very forward and probably needs a PGR as soon as possible as awns will probably be visible by the end of next week.
The final fungicide should be applied at the awns peeping stage. Repeated trials have shown that delaying for two weeks allows ramularia to infect the crop and will reduce yield by anything up to 0.4 t/ha.
Winter wheat
Leaf 3 will have emerged on many of the early sown winter wheat crops next week. Courtesy of Teagasc monitor crops, low levels of septoria have been noticed on lower leaves. But this will start to spread with the recent rain.
Graham does have some yellow rust: growers should be be on the look-out for this. According to Teagasc, most winter wheat crops have now received a leaf 4 (T0) application.
Spring cereals crop management
All spring cereal crops will have welcomed the recent rain, as many were starting to show signs of stress and trace element deficiencies.
Next week may well be a good time to start controlling broadleaf weeds. Growers can also include trace elements to address whatever deficiencies that are showing.
Generally speaking, most farmers will use a sulfonylurea (SU) herbicide e.g. Cameo Max, Ally Max, etc., with a mixer type product e.g. Galaxy, Hurler, etc., to give the broadest spectrum of weed control.
Wild oat control can then be completed in a few weeks’ time when it is clear all plants have emerged.
Beans and peas
Legume crops have emerged well over the last few weeks and are growing nicely at the moment.
However, in the last few days, there have been a number of reports of bean weevil damage.
Advice from the Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO) is that sprays may be applied at the first sign of leaf damage and repeated after 7-10 days, if necessary. Once the plant reaches five pairs of leaves, control should not be required.
Increasingly, Teagasc tillage advisors are seeing growers opting not to apply an insecticide, as many report to seeing damage on the new leaves after the application.
