As the wet weather continues, field work stretches further into the end of March and April. The three-crop rule is something on many farmer’s minds, but there may be positive news on the way.
At present, whenever land dries up farmers who traditionally plant spring crops also have to contend with the crop diversification requirements, commonly referred to as the three-crop rule.
However, it looks like common sense may prevail on the matter.
A statement to AgriLand issued from the Department of Agriculture this morning stated: “The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is aware that sowing conditions have been affected by the recent bad weather.
We are monitoring the situation and considering the options.
Derogation possible?
We are now seeing a mirror image of what happened in the autumn of 2019 when wet weather prevented at least 45% of winter cereals from being planted and winter growers were granted a derogation from the requirements.
As we have learned from these situations before, regulations like the three-crop rule take time to overcome, or for a derogation to be officially granted, but weighing up the options let’s look at the practicalities of a crop diversification requirement this season.
Land is extremely wet
Land all over the country is at field capacity and much is on its way to saturation point, meaning the date for getting out to do some field work is being pushed further and further away and pushing out optimum planting windows for many crops.
Spring wheat, oats and beans all need to be sown as soon as possible in order to get the most out of these crops. However, it will be a long time before drills can make their way to fields across the country.
Seed shortage
There needs to be a major increase in spring cropping area to fill the deficit left after winter planting, so seed is short across all crops, making it difficult to meet requirements.
A wet back end to the harvest of 2019 also meant that the quality of seed was reduced and not all crops grown for seed met the specifications, adding further to the shortage.
Looking back to 2018, when the crop diversification requirement was lifted, the derogation was not announced until April 11.
Taking all of these factors into consideration, it would seem that it is simply not practical to implement a crop diversification requirement this season and taking all of the above into consideration AgriLand is of the opinion that common sense will prevail.
We’ll keep readers posted…