Varietal cereal selection is becoming increasingly important as an integrated pest management (IPM) tool for tillage farmers, as the challenge from disease and weed burdens increases.
For instance, selecting a variety that is weak on yellow rust can add significant cost and risk for the farmer.
Good resistance to rhynchosporium can make the difference between two or three fungicide applications in winter barley.
Cereal varieties
July is always a good month to view and compare cereal varieties for next season.
The Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) has many of its trials on farm. Teagasc is, therefore, strongly advising tillage farmers to visit the one that is closest to their location.
IPM comes into its own in allowing farmers to deal with heavy grass weed infestations. It’s all about the drawing-up of an effective control plan, which meets the need of a specific farm.
This may well have many elements to it. But it will be largely based on cultural control. This may involve autumn cultivations, rotation, sowing dates, crop choice, and primary cultivation method.
Stopping the spread
Good machinery hygiene is the most critical factor in stopping the spread of grass weeds across farms.
Most grass weed problems start inside the gate where the contaminated machine starts working. Growers should always take time to clean down machines, following work in a field with a grass weed problem.
While this is a chore and takes up valuable time during a busy harvest, it could save thousands of euro, and man hours, in controlling grass weeds in the future.
The area of winter oilseed rape is expected to increase this autumn, primarily due to the substantial increase in the price of oilseeds.
Other attractions to winter oilseed rape for tillage farmers are the potential nitrogen savings when good growth and development is achieved in the autumn/winter period, along with alternative weed control options.
Winter oilseed rape can be profitable in its own right but profitability should be viewed across the entire rotation.
Yield increases in winter wheat of up to 19% have been recorded after breaks for disease in Teagasc experiments when compared to continuous wheat.
Oilseed rape yields have also increased significantly over recent years. Improved ease of harvesting is another feature of the latest rape varieties.
Yields of up to 2t/ac can be expected from well-managed crops of rape. We will not have long to wait to find out if this will be the case in 2022.