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by Liam Leahy, Dairygold Beef & Tillage Area Sales Manager
Farm soils should be sampled every 3 years. The results of soil testing helps farmers to save money by letting them know exactly what fertiliser and lime the soil needs. If you contact your local Dairygold Area Sales Manager (ASM) they will organise for the soil samples to be taken and if you are taking more than 10 samples, they will be taken free of charge. Dairygold has recently opened a new state of art Laboratory, our team will therefore be able to carry out all the necessary soil tests you require.
Have a walk through your fields and see how well the weeds were killed and if any follow up action is needed. Watch out for slug damage as there seems to be more of it this year. Contact one of our team if you need help or advice.
Grow the crops that leave the most profit for you. Dairygold Agribusiness have malting contracts and beans contracts, in 2017 these specific crops were proving to be the most profitable crops in the profit monitor assessments. Now is a good time to look at your crops for 2018 based on recommended lists, field history and soil results.
As you may of heard, we had a very informative seminar chaired by Andy Doyle of IFJ who instigated a discussion on the future of the tillage industry in Ireland. Ciaran Collins,Teagasc Tillage Specialist spoke on Growing Quality Malting Barley. Tim Donovan, Seedtech Technical Manager spoke on growing beans and the advantages of same and Dr Louise Mcnamara spoke on BYDV in the Munster area and its effects on yield.
If you could not attend this conference and would like to find out more about the above topics, the presentations of the conference are available on our website here.
Now is a good time to organise what inputs you might need. Some seed varieties may become scarce so now would be a good time to order. Our Dairygold ASM team can help you with rotation management and take orders for seed and other inputs. We have our special account for fertiliser and chemicals and offer the complete package of crop walking. We can also help in preparing a nutrient management plan and picking out the fertiliser that most suits your crops.
Now is a good time to give this some thought. In general, farmers are afraid to forward sell any grain due to historical reasons. Farmers should think of the merits of forward selling some portion of their potential grain harvest. If you contact your local Dairygold ASM, he/she will organise to put your name on list to get forward prices.
These are just a few tips as to what grain growers could be doing at the moment. We will continue this into the future.