Cereal growers, who held off planting crops last autumn over fears of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV), are paying a real penalty now.
This is the very clear view of James Hegarty, who farms with his brothers William and Patrick near Whitechurch in Co. Cork.
“The weather closed in as we got into October and many crops were left unplanted,” he said.
“As it turned out, BYDV was not that big of an issue in our area. But the weather was. We ended up planting some winter barley prior to Christms and we followed this with an area of winter wheat in January.
“Time will tell how these crops perform. But the real lesson that we learnt from last autumn was to get on with planting crops when ground conditions permit.”
Where the threat of BYDV is concerned, James is commending the use of disease-tolerant varieties.
“We used a lot of Joyau on the ground that we did get sown out last autumn,” he explained.
“It is not wholly resistant to BYDV, but it does show quite high levels of resistance. We have not seen any signs of BYDV impacting on any of our barley crops up to this point. We also want to grow more BYDV-resistant barley varieties into the future.”
Planting crops in Whitechurch
The three brothers grow cereals under the trading name, Hegarty Agri. In addition to their own land, they take ground on lease within a 20-mile strip than runs north of Whitechurch.
All of the grain they produce is used on their own beef and dairy units. A high proportion of the cereal output is sold to neighbouring livestock farmers.
The brothers believe passionately in the principle of Irish farmers using as much native grains and proteins as possible.
It is for this particular reason that they have committed to significantly increasing the area of beans grown in 2023.
“In 2022, we grew 100ac of beans,” James confirmed.
“This year that figure has increased to 170ac. Beans fit very well within the rotations that we follow. And the availability of the protein payment is an added incentive.”
The brothers urea-treat all the cereals grown on the farm. Over the past two years, they have used GrainpHro+ for this purpose.
“By taking this approach, we are managing to increase the protein value of the treated cereals,” James explained.
“It also increases the pH value of the overall ration fed to stock.
“In this part of the world many dairy farmers with spring-calving are feeding quite high levels of cereal-based diets to their cows at the present time.
“One major concern they would have is that of animals being impacted with acidosis. The alkaline treatment of grain gets around this problem.”