Tillage farmers have been told they must take full account of the additional costs involved, before they consider replanting cereal crops that have fared badly over recent months.
Crops specialist, Shay Phelan, addressed the 2024 Teagasc National Tillage Conference this past week. He explained that winter wheat, in particular, had tremendous powers of resilience.
“Back in 2018, crops of Garrus winter wheat, grown under trial conditions, delivered acceptable yields with initial germination counts of between 60 to 80 plants per square metre,” Phelan said.
Phelan went on to confirm that average plant counts, across a crop, will determine the outcome of any decision to push ahead with a replanting project.
Obviously, nothing can be done in locations where the plant count is zero.
However, where there is evidence of crop growth, the following threshold values are relevant: winter wheat – 90 plants/m2; two-row winter barley – 150 plants/m2; six-row winter barley – 90 plants/m2.
According to Phelan, growers must also take account of the full yield potential that a replanted crop will deliver.
Moreover, this must have the potential to fully account for the costs already incurred last autumn.
“Even a spring barley crop that yields up to 7.8t/ha is unlikely to meet this requirement,” he said.
“This reflects the current state of feed grain prices and the fact that everything would have to go according to plan over the coming months, to secure yields of this size in the first place.
“Malting barley stacks up as one of the best options for those farmers committed to replanting cereals over the coming weeks. This reflects the value-added prices available for the crops,” Phelan said.
Replanting of crops
The crops specialist continued: “Growers who decide to replant now, but had already applied a herbicide to the previously drilled crop, should be conscious of the time lag required associated with the active chemicals that had been used.
“In some cases, the herbicide can remain active for up to three months. In these instances, growers should refer to the labels of the chemicals they had used.
“The last thing farmers need, is previously applied chemicals impacting on newly sown cereals.”
Significant number of growers will also decide to push on with the crops that are already in the ground. In such instances, Phelan advises farmers to assess the yields they can expect and tailor fertiliser applications accordingly.
“There is no point managing a crop that will yield only 7.5t/ha in the same way one would go about dealing with a crop with the potential of yielding up to 10t,” he said.
“Reducing phosphate and potash application rates will act to reduce crop production costs. In addition, front loading crops that are struggling with nitrogen will have no positive impacts at all,” he said.