The risks in continuing autumn planting from now on probably outweigh the benefits that could be gained, according to the latest advice from Teagasc.
So, has the autumn planting season come to an end?
There are farmers with seed in stock with nowhere to go. But only the kindest land in the south of the country can be considered suitable to plant with winter barley at this stage of the year.
There is still a little time to plant wheat as most varieties can be sown up to the end of January.
However, growers should be prepared to chase crows for a couple of months until the crop is established. Getting the correct seeding rate is also important for those farmers wanting to plant over the coming days.
Autumn planting
Walking fields continues to be a priority especially where there are crops which are struggling to emerge.
Teagasc has confirmed that slugs are a problem in some fields and need to be watched carefully. Setting baits and checking regularly is key to assessing numbers and to determine if actions are needed.
Growers should start putting out slug bait points shortly after the crop is planted, where problems have been incurred in the past.
The threshold for cereals is four slugs per bait point over a 24-hour period. There are a number of products which can be used and include either metaldehyde or ferric phosphate in a wheat bait.
These pellets can break down quickly in rain so it is a case of watching the weather forecast before application.
Cost breakdown
Keeping track of the costs and sales within every farm business is crucially important.
In essence, this boils down to being able to compare how crops were managed in the past and putting in place management modifications to achieve a better outcome.
Teagasc has partnered with Farmplan to provide a crop recording software package called Gatekeeper Express Cloud. It allows Teagasc clients to record their farm records digitally on a cloud platform.
Being cloud-based, the software can be accessed via a web browser, reducing the cost of entry and reliance on specific hardware.
The reports from the programme are suitable for cross compliance purposes.
Farmers can also connect to their advisor, who will be using ‘Gatekeeper Agronomist’ to get field recommendations sent directly to their phone/computer.