On the first episode of Teagasc's Tillage Edge podcast, Michael Hennessy was joined by Dr. Richie Hackett to discuss nitrogen strategies in winter cereals and also malting barley.  Richie has a wealth of research expertise and is the main researcher in this area in Ireland.  

Winter crops took a battering last autumn from later than normal planting combined with constant wet soil conditions all the way to March this year.  Yield potential may have suffered however Richie is upbeat about most crops.  With good agronomic management and a kind season there is still good potential in most crops.

Richie explained where plant stands were good and where the tillers/shoots were retained good yield potential can be fulfilled.  For that reason Richie doesn’t recommend deviating too far from the normal amount of nitrogen applied to crops.  

He recommends where a crop’s potential isn’t great to reduce nitrogen input by 20 kg N/ha for each one ton/hectare lower yield than normal.  However he also recommended not to reduce overall rates by more than 40kg N/ha. 

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

The Tillage Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.