It’s shaping up as a re-run of 2018 in the east even with a return to normal rainfall levels

THE DROUGHT in the east will result in lower yields and lower straw volumes which will affect this year’s supplies.

Despite the change in weather over the past few days there was relatively little relief from the grip of the conditions, which have varied considerably up and down the country.

The very south has been the least affected (it has had arguably perfect growing conditions); growers towards the east to the north-east are the most affected. This was evident in the pictures and videos in the Teagasc Virtual Crop Walk which aired about a week ago as part of our initiative to help farmers through this difficult period.

Make no mistake this is hugely serious for farmers in the east. Think 2018! In this region, there are few crops that could be described as excellent and with a high yield potential for harvest.

The majority of crops range from reasonable to very poor for yield potential. Spring barley is the worst affected.

Walking a number of spring barley crops over the past week and listening to reports from around the eastern part of the country it’s clear spring barley crops are thin on the ground and are already starting to head out. This doesn’t bode well either for grain or for straw yield.

Many winter crops will also have smaller volumes of straw. Watch this space as straw may become scarce during the harvest and for the following winter.

So would rain over the next number of days help yield and result in a reasonable harvest for the most drought-affected growers?

Certainly there are a number of crops which would benefit from rain, such as beans, spring oats, spring wheat, maize and beet. All of these still have a long way to harvest and where the crop now has a good plant/shoot stand, it will definitely benefit from rain.

Almost all the other cereal crops have now set the final number of grains. Some still have to flower and fertilise these grain sites and then it’s into grain fill.

Winter and spring barley yield is determined by the number of grains per metre squared, with a high number resulting in a high yield, whereas the low grain numbers will result in lower yield.

Spring barley crops, affected by moisture stress, have fewer shoots/heads, with normal or smaller-sized heads, and have fewer green sites, therefore fewer grains per m2.

The canopy under these crops will be sufficient to fill these grains but they still need some rain to finish out this grain fill.

A prolonged wet spell in the coming weeks on these crops may well only result in an increase of small side-tillers which could become problematic at harvest as green grains and also result in higher grain protein.

Another potential side-effect of excessive rain maybe be an increase in ramularia, which can hit the crop in the run-in to harvest, but I don’t think this is a huge threat for most crops. Fungicide options for these worst-affected crops may well be as little as a multi-site plus a triazole such as Arazonia plus Proline or similar, or a reduced rate of the mixture product.

Wheat crops can make up somewhat for fewer grains by maximising grain fill. This is involves extending green area by keeping the crop disease-free, but adequate water is also needed.

It’s not all bad news: an estimated 25pc of spring barley crop is looking good with another 25pc with reasonable potential if they gets a little more rain.

These crops will need to receive a similar fungicide final fungicide programme as normal. Adjustments should be made to crops with higher levels of rhynchosporium, but these are mostly in Cork.

All growers should remember to walk their fields regularly to spot grass weeds (wild oats, canary grass, blackgrass and bromes) and hand-rogue weeds where necessary.

Hand-roguing in many cases may not be possible as numbers of weeds may be too high. If you have canary grass or blackgrass, the best solution is crop destruction to prevent seed set and seed return.

This may sound drastic but it’s probably the cheapest and easiest way to start a programme of ridding your farm of these weeds. Crop destruction can be completed by using Roundup or whole-cropping the area.

Blackgrass

However, watch out for blackgrass as at the moment it is flowering and in the middle of seed set. It will start to shed seed quite quickly, so the time is short to get these areas destroyed.

Also ensure when whole crop is fed to animals that any subsequent dung/slurry is spread to long-term grassland and not to tillage ground.

For wild oats or sterile brome crop, destruction is an option but these weeds are more controllable long term. Unless the wild oats are herbicide-resistant then crop destruct is preferable.

Growers are constantly trying

Contrast:

These two photos from the same headland show (left) a grass mix of cocksfoot and timothy (no sterile brome) and (right) no grass mix and full of sterile brome

to rid the farms of sterile brome, but this weed has become endemic in hedges and will continue to threaten fields unless action is taken.

Oak Park and farmers involved with the ECT programme are having great success in controlling brome coming from hedges/margins by planting grass margins.

Cocksfoot and timothy mix are successful but perennial rye grass can also be used. The key is to establish a thick stand of these grasses, mow in the first year to allow the grasses to tiller and thicken. Sterile brome cannot compete with these grasses and will die out in these areas.

Always map out the weed-infected areas for reference in the coming years.

This will help when devising

a plan to eliminate the weed as part of a five- to seven-year strategy on the farm.

The ECT project run by Teagasc is looking for mature seed samples of uncontrolled grass weeds to test for herbicide resistance. Please contact Teagasc, Oak Park, your local Teagasc advisor or your local agronomist/merchant rep for further details.

A final note: for those farmers who are considering selling crops as wholecrop, Teagasc has an excellent forage agreement template which is simple to fill out. This can be downloaded from the Teagasc website.

Spring barley crops are thin on the ground and are already starting to head out — this doesn’t bode well for grain or straw yield

Michael Hennessy is head of the Crops Knowledge Transfer Department at the Teagasc campus in Oak Park