Getting malting barley crops off to a good start is important, according to Teagasc’s Ciaran Hickey, as well sown is half grown.
The Teagasc Tillage Advisor spoke at the recent Malting Barley Seminar, where he highlighted the importance of soil conditions on crop establishment.
“The seedbed is massively important. Soils need to be dry when operated and the actual placement of the seed is very important when it comes to achieving yields.”
In poorly sown crops, he said, the plant populations can be uneven due to seed failure.
“What we are looking for in the malting industry is homogeneous grain that will look the same, react the same during the malting process and produces the same level of extract.
“Good ploughing is always a massive help to the situation because you are starting from a very good footprint.
Farmers should wait for the soil conditions to come right rather then basing their tilling activities around date.
“Some people are inclined to rush in, but it is important to wait for ground conditions to be right,” he said.
“You need to have a good tilt, which means that the ground needs to be dry enough to be able to break the soil down in to a fine tilt.
“You want to avoid clods or lumps of clay, which are formed by the presence of water and pressure.
There is a huge difference between consolidating soil and actually compacting it. The number one way to reduce compaction is to avoid working soil in wet conditions.
“The presence of moisture in the soil acts as the binding agent to really compact it and get rid of oxygen,” he said.
Hickey also said a fine seedbed is important as it offers good soil-to-seed contact.
“Once we have the plant in the ground, an interesting fact is by growth stage 31 with a Green Area Index (GAI), which is the amount of material that is over the ground, the plant will be intercepting 68% of the incident photosynthetic radiation,” he said.
This means the crop is catching 68% of the energy available and it can be used to drive on the plant to create biomass.
“A good start is vitally important, if we think of the plant that is in a compacted wet headland, it is not getting the opportunity to capture that level of radiation,” he said.