The Tillage Edge

Getting the best out of every kilogram of nitrogen applied on farm is not only desirable but necessary from a financial and environmental perspective and Dr Richie Hackett from Oak Park, Teagasc joins Michael Hennessy on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast to explain more.

He told Michael that the rainfall over winter, in almost all years, is sufficient to wash nitrogen through the soils leaving little reserves in early spring. As soils warm up (and if there is sufficient water) soils nitrogen will be released and become available to plants. The amount will vary from year to year even in the same soil.

Richie explained that there are two main areas to get right to ensure the nitrogen used is efficient. Firstly, only apply nitrogen to the crop when it needs it or apply at the correct timing, and secondly, match the amount applied as closely as possible to the crop demands. This can be difficult to do but knowing your soils and good records from previous years can help in getting the rates correct.

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

Testing soil fertility (pH, phosphate, potassium, etc.) is one of the most important jobs a farmer can do on the farm as without healthy, well-balanced soils, there is little or no foundation for high yields.

On this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Conor O’Callaghan, from Teagasc, Dublin and Martin Ennis, a farmer from north county Dublin, join Michael Hennessy to discuss this topic.

Conor completes nutrient management plans for farmers and strives to balance the nutrients on larger farms with no more than two compound types, a high P and low P compound, so that it is practical for farmers to apply fertiliser without too many runs through the fields.

Martin Ennis started using precision soil sampling (a sample from every hectare) on his farm and has found the resulting savings in lime spreading (using a variable lime spreader) in the first year more than paid for the extra costs.

Martin is now using a variable rate fertiliser spreader and only applying P and K where needed. He uses a compound to apply the base rates of fertiliser and then precision places the final quantities of P and K, where needed, according to application maps (from the detailed soil analysis).

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

This week Teagasc hosted the first in a new series of Crop Agronomy webinars. As with other webinars the questions asked by farmers and answered by an expert panel during the webinar are worth listening to again.

This episode of the Tillage Edge covers the Q&A sessions covering winter barley, winter oats and preparing for planting spring beans and spring barley for the coming season.

Shay Phelan a Specialist in Teagasc chaired an expert panel of Mark Plunkett, Ciaran Collins and Stephen Kildea, all from Teagasc, for the first round of questions.

Clarity was given as to the criteria which farmers should look for before applying early nitrogen to crops and also the level and timings of plant growth regulators on winter oats.

Winter barley disease control is covered in some depth by Stephen Kildea. Stephen stressed growers should aim to avoid stressing barleys at early growth through the applications of herbicides/PGR, etc. as this stress may induce more Ramularia in crops in June.

You can also view the entire crop agronomy webinar on the Teagasc Crops YouTube page at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XXeBcprgYI

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

Teagasc hosted a Malting barley webinar on Tuesday 23rd of February which covered many areas such as liquid nitrogen, cover crops, ramularia and the activities as part of the Teagasc Boortmalt joint programme.

The questions and answers section was particularly interesting as there were some really interesting angles covered and its worth listening to these again on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast.

The expert panel included Deirdre Doyle, Eoin Lyons, Stephen Kildea, Ciaran Hickey and Richie Hackett, all from Teagasc as well as Tom Bryan from Boortmalt. The questions revolved around the topics on the webinar but also included questions about malting barley contracts, components of yield in barley, general barley disease control and more.

If you would like to see a video of the entire webinar go to the Teagasc Crops YouTube page here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6vM546rTu8

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

Plus, don’t forget to register for the next in the monthly series of Teagasc agronomy webinars taking place from 1130-1230pm next Tues 2nd March.

You can register for the event at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/national-events/events/wintercropagronomywebinar.php

Teagasc hosted a Winter Crops Agronomy update webinar on Tuesday 9th February which covered the management needs of winter barley, winter wheat and oilseed rape for the coming few weeks.

This week’s Tillage Edge podcast features the questions and answer session from that webinar between attendees and Teagasc experts.

The first section covered winter barley agronomy and Ciaran Collins, Tillage Specialist in Teagasc posed the questions to the panel of Shay Phelan, Michael McCarthy, Richie Hackett and Jimmy Staples with questions around management of conventional and hybrid barleys and nutrition in all crops.

The next part moved on to how managing winter oilseed rape for the coming weeks will centre on assessing the Green Area index in crops and adjusting nitrogen rates to achieve optimum canopies at flowering.

Finally grass weed and control of sterile brome was debated by the expert panel.

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

Plus, don’t forget to register for the next Teagasc crops webinar on malting barley which is being held on Tuesday 23rd February from 1130-1230pm.

You can register for the event at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/daily/crops/title-95646-en.php

Andy Mahon, from Dublin, is a farm manager on the Bromborough Estate Farm in North Bedfordshire, which is roughly halfway between London and Birmingham and firmly in the heart of arable country and he joins Michael Hennessy on this week's Tillage Edge podcast.

Andy has worked hard on the costs of production on the farm and is the only full time employee managing close to 750 hectares of land. Andy has full-time help for about 8 months of the year and also some help with seasonal labour at drilling and harvest.

The long term farm rainfall for the farm is around 550mm per year (Carlow is 850mm per year) and the average yields (dry) on the farm are as follows; winter wheat 9.5t/ha, spring wheat 6.5t/ha, spring beans 4-4.5 t/ha.

In the past 8 years the Bromborough Estate transitioned from plough based establishment system to min-till, then to strip till and are now full converted to a zero or no-till establishment system.

The switch has helped enormously in labour efficiency, however Andy said it has taken a huge amount of effort and learning to get to what he regards as a sustainable system now. The integration of cover crops, spring cropping and improved control of grass weeds have been a particular focus of the transition.

And don’t forget to join us for Day 2 of the virtual 2021 National Conference on Feb 17th.

Register in advance at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/tillagemonth/

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

Image credit: FWI.co.uk

The effects of Brexit on Irish tillage farmers is the topic on this week's Tillage Edge podcast with economists, farmers and machinery suppliers all featuring from the recent Spring Tillage Webinar.

Tillage farmers were always likely to be the least affected whether there was a Brexit agreement or not according to Fiona Thorne, an economist in Teagasc. However, areas such as goods stuck in the supply chain and registrations of plant protection products may be affected and this could become apparent in the coming months.

Despite the difficulties with imports of seed potatoes, Charlie Doherty, a Donegal potato farmer, believes it could open a door for Irish producers to produce more seed and is an area that Ireland should exploit.

Importing tractors will be more difficult but not impossible according to Brian Lacy from Paddy Lacy tractors in Ferns. Brain said there will be some import delays and it may add 2-4 weeks to imports however he is still waiting on some direction from Revenue to judge this properly.

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

And don’t forget to join us for Day 2 of the virtual 2021 National Conference on Feb 17th.

Register in advance at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/tillagemonth/

Scotland has a similar climate to ours and the research carried out there is more comparable to Irish farms than work from continental US or Europe and on this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Dr Cathy Hawes, from the James Hutton Institute near Dundee in Scotland joins Michael Hennessy to discuss the Scottish experience of maximising rotations.

She explains that in the region she works in, they have similar rainfall totals to Carlow but average yields of wheat and barley are a little lower than Irish yields.

Cathy is an ecologist working on a large scale trial looking at a broad suite of system outcomes from the trial. These parameters include economic, yield mapping, crop diseases, soil quality, carbon storage, biodiversity, infield weeds, etc. Within the trial, different establishment systems, including the direct drill system, is looked at under a six year rotation (which includes potatoes).

This long term trial has produced some interesting results already. Cathy points to the benefits of increasing soil carbon which has increased nutrient efficiency and also results in a better performing soil to suppress harmful soil pathogens.

Cathy believes the results of the work can be very useful to farmers, especially where strategies can be combined to give benefits both economically and to the wider environment.

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

And don’t forget to join us for the virtual 2021 National Conference split over two days on Feb 3rd and Feb 17th.

Register in advance at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/national-events/events/2021tillageconday1.php

Organic manures can supply a badly needed source of carbon to tillage soils according to Mark Plunkett, a Soils and Plant Nutrition Specialist in Teagasc on the latest Tillage Edge podcast.

Mark told Michael Hennessy that a typical dressing of 20 tonnes per hectare of farm yard manure will supply 300 kg/ha of carbon to the soil. As slurries contain more water their carbon contribution is much lower.

Mark stressed the biological benefits of organic manures to revitalise soils by improving nutrient cycling and feeding the flora and fauna such as fungus, bacteria, nematodes and earthworms. Where all of these components are functioning correctly, crops tend to be more resilient during periods of stress (wet weather or drought) and can give higher yields.

Organic manures can replace up to 50% of the chemical fertiliser applied to spring crops and are a direct replacement to the chemical fertiliser in most cases. Mark maintained that most slurries can be transported up to 15 kilometres but recommends discussing this with the slurry producer to source the most efficient transport type.

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/

And don’t forget to join us for the virtual 2021 National Conference split over two days on Feb 3rd and Feb 17th.

Register in advance at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/national-events/events/2021tillageconday1.php

Growing rye is becoming more of an option for farmers in recent years and on the latest episode of the Tillage Edge, Michael Hennessy speaks to Tipperary farmer, Gerard O’Mara, Teagasc tillage specialist, Ciaran Collins, and Teagasc adviser, Conor Kavanagh, to find out more.

Gerard O’Mara, has been successfully growing rye for the past number of years and he has increased the acre of rye on his farm at the expense of winter wheat and spring barley area. Gerard is quite happy with the crops performance on his farm but points out that harvesting is slower due to the high volume of straw.

Ciaran Collins, a tillage specialist in Teagasc, points out that rye can be useful to extend rotations and potentially replace second wheats on the farm. Ciaran maintains that despite the crop being referred to as a low input crop, rye does require a reasonable level of inputs. He added the crop is high yielding therefore it requires a lower input per unit of output (compared to winter wheat).

Ensuring there is a clear market for the rye grain is also very important according to Conor Kavanagh, Teagasc advisor in Tipperary (and Gerard’s advisor). Conor added that rye grain is very flexible for feed in ruminants and very suitable for pig feed and there is a small market for distilling.

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

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/