The harvest of 2022 will probably be one to recollect on my farm, for all the best causes.
he yield efficiency of all crops exceeded my expectations and the climate was good proper via the harvest season.
The extended dry spells through the rising season had 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 sort on my farm is free-draining and beans can wrestle for moisture, particularly through the extended excessive temperatures we bought in August.
Submit-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 properly 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 performed on the farm. Varied species have been drilled, together with tillage radish, mustard, vetch, phacelia and clover.
It is going to be attention-grabbing 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 probably be essentially the most difficult I’ve ever had, given the prices of inputs.
I intend to scale back my space of winter barley and improve my spring bean space. The principle motive 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 are going to probably be the highest-margin crop I can produce subsequent 12 months.
I’ve been analyzing methods I can cut back my general fertiliser prices; I began by taking a look at my most up-to-date soil samples. The farm is low in phosphorus (P) and it’s exhausting to construct P on our soil sort, so there is no such thing as a actual saving on P software that I could make with out impacting on crop yield.
Nonetheless, the degrees of potassium (Ok) in my soil are wonderful, with practically each area in index 4. I do know from expertise that the Ok degree right here can change quickly so I do must be cautious however I really feel there’s a nice alternative to scale back my general Ok 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