Oilseed rape will give comparable margins in 2023 to winter wheat and is a crop worth consideration on most farms and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast,  Shay Phelan and Dermot Forristal from Teagasc discuss the varieties, establishment methods and early crop management of oilseed rape.

According to Shay, choosing a variety with high light leaf spot and pod shatter resistance is a good starting point but there are other traits which can be looked at including Phoma resistance or a Clearfield variety which is matched to a specific herbicide allowing to control other brassicia species in the field. 

Dermot Forristal said oilseed rape is resilient and will give similar yields when planted with different establishment systems, providing plants are evenly spaced through the field.  

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The Tillage Edge chatted to Andy Mahon, who is a farm manager in North Bedfordshire in the UK.  Andy, originally from Dublin, is almost finished the harvest already.  Andy said this has been the earliest, and easiest harvest he has ever been involved in.  Crops developed earlier than normal through the spring and the lack of water has not helped yields. 

Andy said yields are 10% lower than the farm long term averages but the quality is excellent and he is hoping wheat crops will achieve milling specification.  Andy is concerned about the high risks of production for next year but has purchased all the fertilisers already so he will continue growing wheat.  

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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Ted Massey, from the Nitrates Section at the Department of Agriculture, joined the Tillage Edge this week to discuss the new rules around stubble cultivation.  These rules are intended to encourage plants to grow and mop up nitrogen, which could be leached to ground water.  Ted chatted through a number of important clarifications to the rules and how farmers can best follow the rules at farm level.

Ted said “We listened to the farming community and Teagasc and as a result the clarified rules will both reduce nitrate leaching from tillage land but also leave space for nature”.  Ted mentioned that the Department of Agriculture would add more information on their website to provide more clarity to the rules.

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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Jim McCarthy joined the Tillage Edge podcast from Romania this week to give an update on the progress of his harvest and an overview of the harvest in his part of the world.  

Jim said that the lack of rainfall so far in the growing season has been compounded by recent prolonged high temperatures and as a result, wheat yields are 40% lower than normal.  

He also said he thinks the summer crops such as maize and sunflowers will be severely affected unless they get rain in the coming weeks.

Jim explained that the entire region is suffering and the predicted Romanian maize harvest has been revised from 15 million tonnes to 7.9 million tonnes.  

Looking forward to next year, he has forward bought some fertiliser but the farm rotation will change to mitigate some of the risk for 2023. 

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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The harvest so far has been a mixed affair with relatively poor winter barley yields across the country.  

On this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, John Pettit and Conor Kavanagh, both Teagasc tillage advisors, discuss the results so far from the south east and the south of the country.

Conor says the poor winter barley yields are probably a combination of earlier drilling which increased the levels of BYDV and take all.  Yields were very poor in crops that had high levels of BYDV.  

Farmers in the south-east were affected by BYDV also but John pointed out that take all probably had a large effect on barley in a poor rotational.  John added that yields, so far, in winter oats are close or above average.   

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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Shay Phelan talks to Dermot Forristal and Brendan Burke from Oak Park on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to discuss combine harvester settings to ensure that crops are harvested as efficiently as possible. 

Both Dermot and Brendan emphasise the need to adjust the setting to take account of the crop and the harvesting conditions to get a good sample and to reduce losses. 

Both also discuss how to reduce compaction on soils during harvest which may have long term consequences for fields, especially those in reduced cultivation systems.

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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Dr. Steven Kildea joins Shay Phelan on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to talk about potato blight. 

Steven describes the conditions that favour the development of blight in a crop and also how to control the fungus.

Steven also discusses how a new strain of blight has been found in Ireland which has resistance to one of the popular fungicides used both commercially and by hobby growers.

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com

Input prices have skyrocketed but at the same time the value of outputs have also increased.  The value of chemical P and K has doubled, therefore the value of the P and K in straw has also doubled.  

On the latest Tillage Edge podcast, Mark Plunkett and Dermot Forristal from Teagasc, discuss the value of straw and how best to incorporate straw this year.

Dermot also chats about the best techniques to incorporate straw and where a tine cultivator can work better than disc cultivators.  He says that one of the most important things is to ensure straw is spread evenly across the full width of the header.

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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Ciarán Collins and Shay Phelan, both Tillage Specialists in Teagasc, joined Michael Hennessy on the latest Tillage Edge podcast to discuss how crops have developed over the season and to look forward to the harvest.  

They both touched on the major features of the season and pointed to the generally low disease pressure this year and agree that, given where crops are at the moment, there is excellent yield potential in all crops.

Shay also discussed oilseed rape desiccation from assessment to the products which can be used and he pointed out that careful assessment of the seed in pods is critical before desiccation can begin. 

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

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Grassweeds in tillage crops are becoming more common but John Mahon,Teagasc ECT advisor, is on this week’s episode of the Tillage Edge podcast and says that any grass weed population can be successfully managed.  

John says farmers should take a zero tolerance approach to weeds such as blackgrass and ryegrass as these weeds are hugely prolific seed producers and are hard to eliminate if they become established.

There are a number of herbicides, which form part of the control measures, but using the same herbicide types too often will encourage herbicide resistance.  

John points to multiple resistant populations which many Irish farmers are trying to deal with at the moment.

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