Large percentage of malting barley in the ground

Tillage farmers are extremely busy at present planting spring crops. Sowing of malting barley is well underway across the country.

As of Saturday, March 28, 92% of the crop which is being grown for Boortmalt in the Co. Carlow area had been planted.

Talking to Tom Bryan and John Crean of Boortmalt on Tuesday, March 31, they informed AgriLand that sowing was almost wrapped up around the Athy area of Co. Kildare.

Plantings were estimated to be 73% complete in the Ballycarney area of Co. Wexford and much of the sowing in south Wexford – a traditionally late area – is expected to be completed by the coming weekend.

In the Portlaoise and Stradbally areas of Co. Laois approximately 64% of crops were planted, while suppliers in the Middleton area of Co. Cork had just 16% of their crops in as land needed more time to dry out.

Nitrogen levels

Advice a few weeks ago was to reduce nitrogen levels for late sown crops – by 1kg/ha for each day the crop is sown after the traditional sowing date.

However, the good weather of the past few weeks has allowed growers to catch up and much of the crops are now going in at their usual time as sowing is not taking place as late as once predicted. This means nitrogen rates should revert back to normal levels.

Advice from the company is to keep nitrogen at usual rates and even though growers have crops in earlier than they thought they would have, they should not add on additional nitrogen to their normal rate.

“There’s no need for additional nitrogen. The crop has gone in in really good conditions. The soil is warm. The germination is good. It doesn’t need additional nitrogen,” Tom noted.

The company also advised growers to keep in mind fields with the potential to produce distilling barley and manage crops accordingly.

Agronomists will walk alone this season

Boortmalt also stated that agronomists will not meet with farmers this season.

Agronomists will be following strict guidelines on a “Safe System of Work” and the company is asking all parties to adhere to strict guidelines to keep everybody safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Farmers who would like their crops walked can ring their agronomists as usual. The agronomist will walk the crops on their own and call the farmer by phone afterwards. They can then email, text or call out the crop’s prescription over the phone.

Information will be available on the distribution of pesticide products in the coming weeks.

Survey over the phone

In the next few weeks, Boortmalt’s agronomists will be making phone calls to growers and asking them to complete a survey.

They will be asking growers for sowing dates and nitrogen application rates from 2014 to 2019. This information will then be used to examine the effect of these management practices on protein levels.

Information is key in examining protein levels and the survey is hoped to help in developing future advice and on finding areas which are traditionally associated with low and high protein barley.