Certified Cereal Seed, The Benefits!
• Guaranteed vigor & germination of at least 85%
• Guaranteed purity of at least 98%
• Guaranteed clean & screened seed, free of wild oats
• Guaranteed even seed treatment with a hi-tech fungicide
• Access to the very best of new & highest yielding varieties under Irish conditions
• All seed grown, stored, monitored and assembled to the highest of standards.
• Peace of mind.
DON’T RISK YOUR BUSINESS & OUR AG INDUSTRY WITH DODGY SEED!!
ALWAYS USE CERTIFIED SEED!!

What to Sow in 2012??
The Brand has an ever increasing demand for high quality, native feed grains and beans. Inclusion of high quality, native grain was the foundation of the brand and is a feature of the brand ever since and one we are very proud of. Since the harvest, grain price has fallen nearly every week, but as I write on the last week of December they have risen by almost 10euro per tonne, but be cautious, nobody likes being a busy fool. Whatever you do in 2012, make sure it makes economic sense. Remember with rented land, it’s often hard to find two margins! It is only fair that the land owner shares some of the risk as we farm in a time of price volatility. Giving the land owner the value of one tonne of grain at harvest time or the straw, mightn’t be a bad idea. Do the sums for each field. Next month we will publish a set of crop costings, when we have a clearer picture of fert prices.
A soil sample is as important as the sums! Remember the average p.H in Ireland is 5.7, which is heading towards crop failure for barley. Lime governs the release of nutrients from the soil. It is estimated that by liming a soil with a p.H of 5.5, approx 60units per acre of nitrogen is released per year, for up to 10 years.
Break crops are essential for land, it gives the land a break from the constant same activity, it breaks disease cycles and allows the use of different chemicals, which greatly reduces the risk of weed resistance to chemicals. In many cases it reconditions the soil.
Remember, each year, it must be everyone’s aim to achieve higher yields and better quality.

 It is important to understand that the prices on the projections post are estimated via future markets and not guaranteed.

Input prices are vat inclusive & are based on payment upon collection as no interest is included.

2012 grain price is based on information from London Futures Market.

Fertiliser inputs are based on Index 1 soils for N,P & K.

Weed control is on average & does not include any spring herbicide application for winter crops.

Machinery costings are based on contractor charges.

Per acre :

Due to the superb yields of the winter cereals this year it is anticipated that Autumn sowings will rise. This means that all seed for the autumn will be subject to order and to avoid disappointment, we would urge you to order seed as soon as possible. Oat seed in particular will be very scarce, as the winter kill was severe. Seed is available in 50kg and 500kg bags, and it is essential that if you order seed that you take it. 

We are available to talk to you at any time about the different crops and varieties.

Remember the importance of rotation & producing what the market requires.

Our feedmill has an ever increasing demand for Quality Native Grains to serve the increasing countrywide demand for The   Brand & with the construction of a cubing plant in progress, we hope that this demand will be even greater

Soil Sampling:

Growing a crop without a soil result is a big gamble, especially at a time when input costs are high. Proof of soil indices is essential. Make sure at least 3 months has elapsed since the last applied fertiliser (chemical or organic). Try and keep cropping history & different soil types separate. Try to keep sampled area as small as possible in order to get a good representative result. (No more than 15acres).

Soils- Replace what you take away!!

Read more »

The harvest is almost completed except for beans.

Yields have been very good this year, as growers are very happy. Yet again, those who used timely and robust rates of fungicides have been richly rewarded. The year started off a very low disease pressure year & therefore gave the temptation to reduce rates. From mid-June onwards the tide turned and there was huge pressure on all cereals, as for the first time we heard of a T4 on wheat, as septoria crept up along the leaves. Some used half rate prosaro for the T3 and the penalty this year was 0.5tonne. Ramularia flourished in many spring barley varieties, but didn’t seem to affect yield drastically.

 Quality is also excellent this year. KPH on some wheats is as high as 8O. Screenings are a little higher than last year in barley, but still very low.

New Einbock Seeder Service:

This new machine has been a great success & farmers are very happy with results. It has very good seed accuracy and can sow up to 8 acres per hour.

Pick out the cattle that you intend to fatten this winter & keep them on the best of grass until housing. Very often there can be a good price on offer for heifers fattened before Christmas, and so forward heifers may benefit from this price if meals are now introduced and built up to a high level before housing. This gives the added effect of a shorter turnaround time. Forward bulls should be housed by now & on route to ad-lib concentrate feeding.

Grass quality is deteriorating at the moment and grass will be becoming a lot lower in dry matter, which means all stock will benefit from concentrate supplementation. This will also help to prolong the grazing season.

Important: Grow the animal before you fatten. Protein is what will grow the animal, energy is what will fatten. Too often you now see fat, low sized animals at 1 year of age, because they were pushed too hard on the wrong diet.

Growing animals need copious levels of protein until fully grown, when their protein requirement is reduced to very small quantities.

Nugget Rations – Always The Best!

For Optimum Weight Gain & Milk Yield!

Since the introduction of the suckler cow welfare scheme, weanling buyers have reported far less health problems due to feeding 2kg of meal pre-weaning. It is a requirement under the scheme to feed meal for at least 4 weeks pre-weaning.

Winter Barley:

Yield reports are variable, but the local crops are yielding up to 4tonne. Quality is superb with KPH ranging from 65 to 70.

Spring Crops:

Fusarium has become quiet rampant on all varieties of sp. barley, but there is nothing that can be done. Even on crops that received the best of chemistry are effected.

Watch out for bird feeding at crop edges or where lodging has occurred.  Crops that received good husbandry in the form of nutrition, fungicide dose and timings and were sown on time, look very good.

Watch sp. wheat for aphids. Remember the threshold is 5 per ear.

Pre-Harvest Round-up:

Pre-harvest treatment of grain with Round-up (Glyphospate) is an excellent harvest aid that pays!

• Reduces moistures. (1% = 2euro)
•     Ripens grain in even.
• Best way to kill scutch grass.
• Burns back any remaining greenery.
• Facilitates easier harvesting & straw baling.

Never treat a seed crop with Round-up as it destroys the germ in the seed.

The best time to pre-harvest treat grain with Round-up is 10 days pre-harvest, at this stage the grain should be at a moisture content of 30%. Make sure that you will be able to harvest the crop within 10 days, or losses could occur.

We supply a very well priced, generic form of Round-up called Clinic

Fodder Rape:

Many of our spring cereal cropping fields will be left totally idle from now until next March, so why not make some use of them!

With break crops not too plentiful anymore, many fields have continuous cropping, which is totally draining the soil reserve of nutrients.

Sowing fodder rape as a catch crop into stubbles before August 15^th is an excellent way of producing some extra, cheap fodder for light stock or to build up exhausted soil N, P & K reserves.

On average a crop of forage rape will produce 3.5tonne of dry matter, which equals 105units of N, 8units of P and 52units of K, which if ploughed back in, is worth at least 90 euro going on today’s fertiliser prices.

 One or two discing of stubbles should create a fine seedbed. Sow 3kg of seed mixed with 2 bags of 18-6-12 in a shaker. Travel the field twice in criss-cross directions to give good dispersal of seed. Roll after preferably with a ring roller. The einbock seeder is also perfect for this job.

Some volunteer cereals will emerge, but these will also give some grazing. If volunteers are very thick apply a graminicide like stratus ultra at 1lt to 2.5 acres.

Maize:

To date it has been a very disappointing year for maize, but don’t give up, it has a long growing season ahead of the cereals. Sowing under plastic has been very worthwhile this year, but maize in the open has struggled.  Shelter has really shown it’s importance. Purpling which is phosphorus deficiency is widespread, and there is a huge response to treating maize with nutriphite. UK trials tell us that 1lt of nutriphite per hectare delivers an extra yield of 10tonne per hectare.

Fodderbeet:

Green leaf area is very important in fodderbeet and leaves must be kept green and disease free for as long as possible. Early August is a key timing to apply fungicide to these leaves, to protect them against the likely diseases which are virus yellow, rust, ramularia and powdery mildew. Apply punch C at a rate of 240ml per acre.