The 2021 Teagasc Tillage Conference is taking place virtually this year, split over two days, with the second session on tomorrow morning, Wednesday, February 17, at 11:30am.
Register at: www.teagasc.ie/tillagemonth to join us on this exciting interactive webinar with Teagasc researchers and PhD students who will provide insights into current research on a range of topics of immediate interest.
In the morning, Teagasc will address the continuous need for integrated pest management approaches to mitigate against the problem of grassweeds and septoria tritici blotch (STB) of winter wheat while also discussing the relevance of recent results from the on-going Teagasc systems trials, which have been examining the impact of different cultivation practises.
Herbicide-resistant grass weeds
Hear from Vijaya Bhaskar A.V., Dermot Forristal and Steven Kildea from Teagasc, Oak Park, Co. Carlow.
To date, 34 field populations of wild oats have been identified with herbicide resistance, since the first case was verified in 2016. To investigate the linkages between management actions, weed pressure and the incidence of resistance further, a nationwide survey of 145 farms was conducted from June to September 2020 as part of the on-going ECT Project.
Hear from Vijaya Bhaskar A.V., from the Teagasc crops research centre in Oak Park, who will discuss the results of this survey along with outlining the problems with herbicide-resistant grass weeds and what we can do to limit the spread of resistant grass weeds through an integrated management approach with judicious herbicide usage.
Septoria tritici blotch (STB) continues to be the most economically destructive disease of Irish winter wheat crops. The loss of multisite fungicide chlorothalonil in 2020 further emphasised the need to develop fully integrated disease control strategies to combat the disease.
Such strategies must utilise all available means of STB control and tomorrow morning Steven Kildea will discuss the different components to be aware of to maximise control. It is vital to be aware of how this disease can adapt to overcome these measures and Steven will outline what mitigation measures must be put in place to prevent or delay these.
Ireland’s crop yield potential is supported by our: climate; soils; crop management; and past rotations which included grass. But for the last 40 years, most of our cropping has not included grass in rotations and much of it has been in monoculture.
Teagasc Researcher Dermot Forristal will discuss how rotations can make crop production more resilient, by breaking disease pest and weed cycles and improving crop nutrition.
Register today
Visit: www.teagasc.ie/tillagemonth to register for part two of the Tillage Conference. At this link you can also view part one of the Tillage Conference and/or sign up for other Tillage Events such as the upcoming Winter Crop Agronomy Webinars.