The past few weeks have allowed Jack to get his spring drilling completed.

However, there were still some very small areas of standing water in fields, which he says he has never seen in his fields at this time of the year before. Because of this, some patches were not drilled. Jack was not delayed by the poor weather to the extent that most farmers were, as he was waiting for his two-year organic conversion period to finish, so that his crops this year can be sold as organic.

Drilling and rolling between the agroforestry rows on Jack’s farm.

Jack sowed his WPB Isabel spring oats at 165kg/ha last week and his Sharki spring wheat at 205kg/ha. This ground was disced in February to allow weeds to germinate. It was then tine-harrowed twice pre-sowing to kill these weeds.

The crop was planted in very good conditions, and Jack had the opportunity to roll the ground afterwards.

He plans to blind-weed these crops this week before the crops emerge. This involves tine harrowing the ground very lightly above the seeding depth. It is crucial that the germinating wheat and oat seeds are not disturbed, but some losses of up to 10% can be expected. Jack is hoping for a couple of dry days before and after he does this. This will ensure that any weeds that he dislodges during this process will not have access to moisture to survive.

He will update us next month on the successfulness of this method.

The multispecies sward on the farm is starting to regrow after being grazed by sheep.

Jack plans to cut this for hay or haylage in the summer months.

Jack also finished planting his timber species trees in early April. The wet weather of March and early April prolonged the planting season. He is concerned that the recent frosts may damage some of his early-flowering fruit trees, but there are not too many of these trees on the farm.

Rain has fallen every time Tony’s land has become dry enough for cultivation over the past few weeks. Tony says the lack of drying has been the major issue rather than the total amount of rain.

Tony applied a plant growth regulator of CeCeCe 750 (1.5l/ha) to his winter wheat since we last spoke. An amino acid product was also included in this spray.

The crop has also been brought up to 150kg N/ha, with another 50kg N/ha to be applied this week. The crop may also receive some foliar nitrogen later in the year. A T1 spray will be applied to the wheat this week.

Tony mowed, wilted and baled all his triticale over the past couple of weeks. It has all been sold to dairy farmers on a per-tonne basis. Tony says it is great quality, with a DMD of 75% to 78%. The triticale yielded 17.8t fresh weight/ha from 75kg N/ha and mushroom compost pre-drilling.

Tony decided against planting spring barley due to the delayed planting, and this land will be planted with maize. He will begin strip tilling his land to between 20cm and 25cm this week before planting the maize next week. It will be sowed at a depth of 45mm and at a spacing of 130mm to 135mm. This will be done with a new Vaderstad Tempo maize drill, which has very accurate seed placement, promoting uniform growth. Mushroom compost has been applied to all maize ground.

Fertiliser will be applied via the strip till, while DAP or a biological product will be applied by a microgranular fertiliser applicator on the new drill.

While most fields of spring beans are excellent, one field fared very badly with 4ac under water and some plants washed away.

The decision now is whether to bring this to harvest or replant the field with maize.

Tony says that fields that were strip tilled with no cultivation are doing better in the wet weather this year.

It has been a busy two weeks for Mark with a lot of work completed since the weather improved between ploughing, planting, spraying and fertilising.

The winter barley received its T2 spray last Friday. Kavatur Plus (0.5l/ha), Arizona (1.5l/ha), and a growth regulator of Terpal (1.25l/ha) were included in the tank mix. Mark says that the barley needs some kind, warm weather after the cold, wet spring.

The barley after break crops looks to be better than those in a continuous cereal rotation.

The winter wheat received its T1 spray over the past couple of days. There is not that much disease in the crop at present, but Mark wants to get the spray applied before more wet weather comes, and the third last leaf is now fully out.

A strong mix of Revystar XL (1.3l/ha) and Arizona (1.5l/ha) was applied.

Mark Hally drilling in Co Tipperary.

The wheat is currently sitting at 175kg N/ha, with the final 50kg N/ha to be applied this week.

The winter oats was also sprayed recently. It received Decoy 250 EC (0.5l/ha), Modem 200 (0.6l/ha), CeCeCe 750 (1l/ha) and Moddus (0.2l/ha).

Mark also planted his spring barley and oats over the past few weeks. SY Amity, destined for malting, was drilled at 190kg/ha into good conditions. It received 50kg N/ha into the seedbed, and another 100kg N/ha will be spread shortly as the barley is just beginning to emerge. The spring oats also got 50kg N/ha at sowing but will only receive another 50kg N/ha as the crop is after grass. The spring beans on the farm are growing very strongly and have good plant counts.

Mark was tilling ground and planting fodder beet on Monday and Tuesday. Enermax, which is a high dry matter fodder beet, is being grown this year. Mark also plans to sow his uncovered forage maize this weekend if the weather allows.

Mark Hally was planting beet this week.