Lessons learnt from the 2019/2020 cropping year

Absolutely. A few years ago I was at a glanbia walk and afterwards there was a raffle for chemicals. The first name out was a substantial grower who surprisenly delt exclusively with glanbia, so up he went and the winners pick whatever they wanted, so yer man picked up a can of mantrac leaving behind proline and the likes, so immediately his advisor went over and snatched the mantrac and gave him 5 ltrs of proline saying this would be much more suitable for his crops :whistle:Yer man was mortified and hopped into the jeap and left. :laugh:
Give us a hint please who it was...
 
How did people fare out without Deter last autumn, did much BYVD show up? We were all trying to sow WB as late as possible which probably caused some of the losses later on by waterlogging.
What would be your thoughts on sowing early this October?
 
My winter barley got no aphid spray this year. Was sown around 8th November, didn’t see any point in using aphicide when doing the weeds in January, and seem to have got away fine. We would be coastal here so mild and considered high risk
 
How did people fare out without Deter last autumn, did much BYVD show up? We were all trying to sow WB as late as possible which probably caused some of the losses later on by waterlogging.
What would be your thoughts on sowing early this October?
Practically zero bydv in mine. I can't remember the date I sowed mine last year but it was right up against Nov and the wb was actually the last crop to be sown. I did get sparviero for the apdids but forgot to put it on and I didn't bother with any of it in the next rounds of sprays. Ill know a lot more on how well wb did in a few weeks time when the combine goes in.
 
Lowest level of virus in winter or spring that I’ve ever seen, the wet windy weather all autumn and until mid March must have finished off a lot of them. The previous year it was the exact opposite, moral of the story is no 2 years are the same and I still will not plant barley before the 10th of October here, ideally the 20th but I don’t have 100’s I’d acres to sow so it’s easy for me to talk
 
Lowest level of virus in winter or spring that I’ve ever seen, the wet windy weather all autumn and until mid March must have finished off a lot of them. The previous year it was the exact opposite, moral of the story is no 2 years are the same and I still will not plant barley before the 10th of October here, ideally the 20th but I don’t have 100’s I’d acres to sow so it’s easy for me to talk
As a wise man once said (after the winter), if it’s not fit to spray then it’s not fit for aphids to fly.
 
Are you not about 2.5 months too early with this thread? She’s only in calf at the mo, don’t know if its alive or a bull or heifer yet......

Well, that was a rough calving. Jack was required, that broke. Then vet was called, he was 2 weeks late. Still ended up with a calf but it was a bruising affair.


Lessons learnt?

It was again driven home to me that a spread of crops is vital for resilience and rotation. Winter barley (4.25tn) and WOSR (2.0tn) were cut and performed very well before the storms struck in August.
They might be the wrong thing to have next year but it is good to spread the risk.
Winter wheat bore the brunt of the storms here, huge amount of shedding - nothing like I have ever seen before. Wheat also had some sprouting. Yielded 3.8tn in the end which considering the amount on the ground and the missing areas since the autumn, it could have been worse.
Spring barley got a hammering from the winds too but yielded ok after all (3.2tn). Got most seed crops passed but malting failed.

Winter beans yielded well (2.7tn) and I plan to repeat that experiment.

For a while in August, it looked like the plan to sow some WOSR was out the window but that got done in early September and it has had a good start. We ploughed for the WOSR this year as I didn't feel the ground in question was in good enough order for strip tilling. It was damp underneath and there were harvest ruts after the spring barley.

Chopped most headlands of straw, was very glad we did as it allowed easier and quicker baling. Headlands will benefit.

Late sown Phacelia and Vetch as GLAS cover crops are planted.

If the weather plays ball, we plan to plant mostly winter crops again this year. Illuminate second crop seed winter wheat, Dawsum first crop seed winter wheat. Tardis first crop seed winter barley. Some Costello and Valerie for feed.
 
My lessons learned this year
- don’t put tillage into ley ground unless it’s burned off
- if land is at risk of being wet in autumn, late sown spring barley will test your nerves
- the dry day will come
- if there’s a bad wind storm forecast cutting 23% is acceptable to cut
These might seem like basic things to most of ye but I had to learn the hard way
 
My lessons learned this year
- don’t put tillage into ley ground unless it’s burned off
- if land is at risk of being wet in autumn, late sown spring barley will test your nerves
- the dry day will come
- if there’s a bad wind storm forecast cutting 23% is acceptable to cut
These might seem like basic things to most of ye but I had to learn the hard way

That’s how most of us learn. A lesson earned is a lesson learnt.
 
If the weather plays ball, we plan to plant mostly winter crops again this year. Illuminate second crop seed winter wheat, Dawsum first crop seed winter wheat. Tardis first crop seed winter barley. Some Costello and Valerie for feed.

what rotation are you typically running cork to allow mostly winter crops?
 
My lessons learned this year
- don’t put tillage into ley ground unless it’s burned off
- if land is at risk of being wet in autumn, late sown spring barley will test your nerves
- the dry day will come
- if there’s a bad wind storm forecast cutting 23% is acceptable to cut
These might seem like basic things to most of ye but I had to learn the hard way
I only am at this tillage racket since 1984 and I forgot most of the above again this year.
 
I have a feeling mine is going to be a carbon copy of last years with some additions.

Patience is key, the rain did stop in the spring and we got crops in great conditions compared to other years. And the dry weather came in September!

Winter cereals is not like spring cereals, if you get half a chance be prepared to go.

I need more rotation, spring oats worked well and I'm not afraid of them but more margin I feel in winter oats based on current numbers. Also best field of spring barley was after WO. Need to come up with a good rotation considering canary grass pressure and barley straw needed.

Relentless March of canary grass continues

Soft thistles are barstewards to deal with.

Never judge a crop till It's cut or a variety. I whinged enough about one variety and how poor it looked and it outyielded my other variety by a significant margin.:blushing:

If a field needs more cultivation then don't be afraid to do so, I paid the price here with one field!

Be very careful with CCC, especially in cold weather and small plants :blushing:

Don't be rushing, the work will get done.

To hell with what others are at, do What's best for you and the field.

Ring roller is a God send.

Working from home is a good way of combining with tillage farming and as always very lucky to have my father so actively involved in the farm.

Never ever ever sell the Haybob!!!!

We are spending too much time at tillage and machinery needs a review in that regard with some tweaks.

Some idle musings.

If you had asked me 2 months ago if I thought this list was as positive I would have laughed and said you are mad!
 
what rotation are you typically running cork to allow mostly winter crops?

We used to be continuous spring barley up till about 2007. Yields were ok but pretty much maxed out at 3tn/ac year in year out.

Now we mostly use WOSR. We have also used spring beans but I’m trying out winter beans to see if they can be more consistent than the spring beans.
We don’t use oats as a break crop as we have Canary grass which wouldn’t be controlled in the oats.
We can get 100% control of Canary grass in barley, wheat, WOSR and beans. Levels of the weed are very low in the land now.
It’s good to see the straw of the beans & WOSR getting chopped back into the land, it has to be good for it.
 
We used to be continuous spring barley up till about 2007. Yields were ok but pretty much maxed out at 3tn/ac year in year out.

Now we mostly use WOSR. We have also used spring beans but I’m trying out winter beans to see if they can be more consistent than the spring beans.
We don’t use oats as a break crop as we have Canary grass which wouldn’t be controlled in the oats.
We can get 100% control of Canary grass in barley, wheat, WOSR and beans. Levels of the weed are very low in the land now.
It’s good to see the straw of the beans & WOSR getting chopped back into the land, it has to be good for it.
What gap have you in rotation between wosr crops
 
What gap have you in rotation between wosr crops

In general, we’re trying to have WOSR every 6th year. For example WOSR/Wheat/Wheat/Beans/Wheat/Wheat/WOSR. The wheat is winter wheat but it could easily be spring barley or winter barley. Some ground can be too wet to get a winter cereal into it reliably so it might be spring barley between the break crops.
We try to have the first cereal after the WOSR or beans as a seed crop and maybe both cereals would be seed crops.

If the cereal before the WOSR is winter barley then it makes it much easier to get the WOSR sown on time.
 
In general, we’re trying to have WOSR every 6th year. For example WOSR/Wheat/Wheat/Beans/Wheat/Wheat/WOSR. The wheat is winter wheat but it could easily be spring barley or winter barley. Some ground can be too wet to get a winter cereal into it reliably so it might be spring barley between the break crops.
We try to have the first cereal after the WOSR or beans as a seed crop and maybe both cereals would be seed crops.

If the cereal before the WOSR is winter barley then it makes it much easier to get the WOSR sown on time.

That's a good gap between OSR crops, I see some with less of a gap, 4 or even 3 crops between. Would that be chancing it regarding Club Root disease?
 
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That's a good gap between OSR crops, I see some with less of a gap, 4 or even 3 crops between. Would that be chancing it regarding Club Root disease?
You really wouldn’t want to go any closer than one crop in four. Clubroot as you rightly say will be a risk but there are other diseases too that will build up. Even using brassica cover crops in a WOSR rotation isn’t ideal according to the AHDB in the UK.
 
You really wouldn’t want to go any closer than one crop in four. Clubroot as you rightly say will be a risk but there are other diseases too that will build up. Even using brassica cover crops in a WOSR rotation isn’t ideal according to the AHDB in the UK.
Would clubroot affect brasicas year on year in cover crops?
 
More of a problem in monoculture cover crops .
Yes, brassica cover crops year after year would certainly encourage it.
The disease may be in the ground at low levels and you’ll encourage it to multiply. It could arrive in on machines also.
really:eek3:on machinery:huh::huh:?
all depends when the barley comes off
if early ill sow stubble turnips
yesterday i sowed a hybrid rape
 
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