A review of the cropping year that was 2022

All three agree that the year just ending has been of the most eventful 12-month periods for Irish tillage in quite a while. Despite the challenge of high input prices, grain prices were substantially stronger and allowed for a very profitable year.

This assertion is fully verified courtesy of the latest, official income figures.

According to Collins, the 2022 growing year started off on a pretty nervous footing, given the growing pressure on fertiliser prices at that time.

He added:“Uncertainty was a real factor in people’s minds during the early months of this year. Fertiliser availability quickly became the main issue, rather than the actual price of the product.

“This was a direct consequence of Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine. A lot of focus at the time was on the more efficient use of fertiliser. Farmers were trying to make use of what they had. There was a strong focus on the need to make best use of organic manures.”

Meanwhile all of this was taking place against a backdrop of the quite flat grain prices that characterised the early months of 2022.

These trends had a major impact on the breakeven ratios for nitrogen that growers were calculating in early 2022, as they planned their cropping campaigns for the season ahead.

Ciaran Collins again:“There was a lot of uncertainty in the market as the New Year got underway. But grain prices did start to increase as we got into March. They subsequently peaked in the middle of June.”

The three tillage specialists agreed that the strengthening of grain prices in the spring had a settling impact on the tillage sector across the board.

“But there’s no doubt that the overall uncertainty in chemical fertiliser prices helped put a very strong focus on the need to get the best possible value from organic manures, from a crop production perspective,” Collins further explained.

“And with the spring turning out to be so dry, we saw a number of farmers spreading in-crop manures.

“And, for the most part, this approach proved to be successful. We also saw a stronger uptake of soil testing, crop nutrient planning and a greater commitment to the growing of legumes, including beans.

“Overall, there was a greater focus on improved nutrient efficiency.”

According to Shay Phelan, 2022 will go down in the record book as a record year from a crop production point of view.

“This was certainly the case in many instances,” he said.

“Winter wheat had the joint highest yield that we ever had, rivalling what we produced in 2015.

“The likes of winter oilseed rape had higher than normal yields. And spring barley crops produced the highest yields ever recorded in this country.

“Winter crops performed well during the spring. They had been established in excellent conditions during the previous back-end and the winter that followed was pretty benign.

“So, from that point of view, cereals were given the best possible chance.”

As 2022 progressed, disease pressure levels on crops remained very low. According to the Teagasc arable specialists, this factor also helped to boost final yields.

Shay Phelan again:“It wasn’t an overly wet or overly dry spring. There was always enough rainfall coming along that kept crops ticking over.

“There was no real drought scenario unfolding throughout the spring months. Temperatures were also pretty moderate at that stage of the year. As a consequence, crops kept on maturing at a very acceptable rate.

“There was also enough moisture in the soil to give spring crops an excellent start. The months of April and May saw a lot of green growth being achieved in these crops.”

But the one cloud in the blue sky that characterised the cropping year of 2022 was winter barley.

And as the tillage experts were very quick to point out, two main factors combined to bring this about: the scourge of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) and crops not receiving their first split of nitrogen early enough.

According to Phelan, BYDV also had a major impact on crop performance. He explained:“A lot of September-sown crops in the south were pretty badly affected by the virus.

“We could see the impact this activity actually had as early as April of this year. This then followed all the way through.

“Quite a lot of those crops were subsequently impacted by ramularia. So, in reality, we are talking about the cumulative impact of three factors when it came to discerning the reasons why final yields were disappointingly low in a significant number of 2021/22 barley crops.”

However, as the Teagasc representative also went on to point out, large numbers of winter barleys also performed extremely well last year. These included later sown crops and those that received their first split of nitrogen on time.

It is now generally accepted that the moisture available to crops in the spring helped crops to grow on, once the very dry and hot summer weather arrived.

Ciaran Collins takes up that story: “Crops were well established, once the hot, dry weather arrived. Thus is always a big help.

“May, for example, was a particularly dry month. But come that stage of the year, there was already enough moisture in the ground to keep crops ticking over.

“However June was a not a dry month. Figures from Oak Park would indicate that rainfall levels for that period were greater than the long term average. So, rain just came on time in order to keep crops going.”

He continued: “Obviously, we had a really dry harvest, which was brilliant. This allowed growers to get crops harvest on time.”

Beans are often a crop that will develop a little bit later on in the season. And, as the Teagasc representatives confirmed, these crops did feel the impact of the drought more than others.

Ciaran Collins again: “Moisture deficits were an issue with beans in affected area with final yields coming in at around 2t/ac.

“However, there was up to 3t/ac cut in a lot of places.”

The records will show that 2022 was a very positive year for oilseed rape crops. Yields were particularly strong in most parts of the country.

“By and large, rape growers were very happy with the outcome of the 2022 harvest,” said Shay Phelan.

“Yields were excellent with many growers getting up to 5t/ha.

“The other point worth making is that a lot of these crops were grown with a lot less nitrogen than would have been used heretofore.

“This is because crops came through the winter very well. There was very little pigeon grazing, for example.”

But oilseed has been far from a wall-to-wall success story. According to Phelan, a hidden problem has now been exposed: club root. He further explained: “It was an issue last year. And it has grown in prominence in 2022/23. Given the increase in area of oilseed rape that has gone in this year, club root is a factor that growers will have to be much more aware of.

Phelan went on to confirm that developing effective crop rotations is the most effective way of coping with the challenge that club root now constitutes.

A lot of brassicas are now in the ground cover mixes used by cereal growers.

Shay Phelan again: “Quite a number of cereal growers have included brassica species in cover crops that are grazed during the winter months.

“So the club root threat is one that growers should be much more aware of over the coming years.”

Another tillage-related challenge that continues to build momentum across the country is the threat of grass weeds to cereal yields.

However, one very obvious benefit of the Enable Conservation Tillage (ECT) programme has been its focus on the threat posed by grass weeds.

“Traditionally, we would have been looking at wild oats,and maybe a bit of sterile brome,” said Phelan.

“But now we are seeing the likes of blackgrass, rat’s tail fescue and Italian ryegrass becoming a problem.”

He added:“Both farmers and agronomists are now very aware of the challenges posed by these grass weeds.

“It’s time we realised that some of the old management strategies practised are no longer fit for purpose.

“This includes the continuing of older chemistries on a routine basis.

“Poor rotations are also adding to the problem. Issues of this nature are actually exaggerating the problem.

“Again, we have to be very careful, going forward. Growers must be more aware of issues that are developing on farm.”

Meanwhile, a comprehensive scientific paper outlining grass weed occurrence and herbicide resistance status has just been published by Teagasc in tandem with a number of UK-based crop research centres

The survey found that grass weeds have increased on arable farms due to increases in winter cereals and non-inversion tillage adoption, and also new weed introductions.

The loss of herbicides due to tighter regulation and increased herbicide resistance has also contributed. The research focussed on 62 growers with plough-based tillage and 41 with non-inversion tillage.

Grower demographics, their concerns about grass weeds and the use of different weed control strategies were recorded by questionnaire.

Grass weeds were quantified by careful assessment using a 24m x 24m grid sampling technique within a 4ha area within growers’ fields, prior to harvest in each of the two years.

Seed samples were collected for herbicide resistance testing. The key results from this survey confirm that non-inversion tillage was associated with larger farms and younger growers with more formal education

Most of the growers surveyed were aware of herbicide-resistant grass weeds (>80%) and most (>90%) used integrated weed management (IWM) practices to some extent

Across the 103 farms, bromes (on 62% of farms) and spring wild oats (56%) were the most prevalent grss weeds. Significantly, 8% of the bromes were resistant to the ALS type herbicides normally used for control and 10% of the wild oats were resistant to commonly used ACCase herbicide types.

Italian ryegrass (13%) and black-grass (16%) were found on fewer farms but with higher resistance risks.

The research work also confirmed that 56% of Italian ryegrass populations and 43% of black grass populations resistant to ACCase and/or ALS herbicides.

Over 85% of those growers using non-inversion tillage used crop rotation compared to about 56% of those who ploughed. Cover crops were used by 71% of those who practiced non-inversion tillage compared to 19% of those who ploughed. Herbicide use was similar in both systems.

In spite of greater adoption of IWM practices, non-inversion tillage farms had significantly higher population pressure based on weed scores for bromes and Italian ryegrass compared to those who ploughed.

According to the Teagasc research team, this research paints quite a worrying picture for the control of grass weeds in cereals.

Specifically, it confirms that blackgrass is now a serious threat to Irish crop production. In addition, bromes, wild oats and Italian ryegrass create an increasing challenge particularly when coupled with herbicide resistance evolution. Non-inversion tillage, particularly when coupled with earlier sowing, increases the grass-weed threat.

While IWM is being practiced to a limited extent, considering the weed and herbicide resistance challenges, there is an urgent need to develop effective IWM for all crop production systems.

The survey, in addition to identifying these challenges, has also set a useful baseline, from which future change can be measured. This will help research scientists monitor the challenge of difficult-to-control weeds and the effectiveness of integrated weed control measures.