The harvest of 2022 shall be one to recollect on my farm, for all the suitable causes.
he yield efficiency of all crops exceeded my expectations and the climate was excellent proper by way of the harvest season.
The extended dry spells throughout the rising season have been a priority however rainfall appeared to reach on the proper time for my cereal crops and it didn’t negatively have an effect on yield.
The yield of my spring bean crop was decrease than I’ve achieved previously however was nonetheless a decent 2.2t/ac. The soil kind on my farm is free-draining and beans can wrestle for moisture, particularly throughout the extended excessive temperatures we obtained in August.
Put up-harvest of my cereal crops, I drilled cowl crops on nearly all of the land — primarily the fodder rape and leafy turnip combine. I discover this combine very cost-effective and it has carried out very nicely for me over the previous 6-7 years.
I’ve additionally trialled some new cowl crops as a part of a Signpost Programme demo being accomplished on the farm. Varied species have been drilled, together with tillage radish, mustard, vetch, phacelia and clover.
Will probably be fascinating to see how these species carry out and what N uptake every will give.
Now that the cropping season is over, consideration shifts to 2023 and planning what crops to sow. The rising 12 months of 2023 will doubtless be probably the most difficult I’ve ever had, given the prices of inputs.
I intend to cut back my space of winter barley and enhance my spring bean space. The principle cause for that is the price of manufacturing of beans has not risen as a lot as the opposite crops; mixed with the extra protein scheme fee from subsequent 12 months on, they’ll most definitely be the highest-margin crop I can produce subsequent 12 months.
I’ve been inspecting methods I can cut back my general fertiliser prices; I began by my most up-to-date soil samples. The farm is low in phosphorus (P) and it’s exhausting to construct P on our soil kind, so there is no such thing as a actual saving on P software that I could make with out impacting on crop yield.
Nevertheless, the degrees of potassium (Okay) in my soil are wonderful, with almost each area in index 4. I do know from expertise that the Okay degree right here can change quickly so I do need to be cautious however I really feel there’s a nice alternative to cut back my general Okay software and use among the reserves I’ve constructed up within the soil.
John Crowley farms at Ferns, Co Wexford. His advisors are Ciaran Hickey, Mark Plunkett and Eoin Lyons
