The Irish Farmers Journal recently spoke to Eoin Lyons of Teagasc, who oversees the joint malting barley programme.

Eoin gave us a run-down of Teagasc’s cover crop establishment trail which consisted of mustard sown using four different establishment techniques in early August. The crops were sown after craft winter malting barley.

Establishment trials

Four different establishment systems used in the trial including disc drilling, direct drilling, broadcasting on to disced ground and broadcasting directly on to stubble.

The crops sown with a disc drill appeared to be the strongest on the day, with good establishment levels. Based on contractor charges, this system cost around €20-€25/ac.

Crops in the direct-drilled plot were somewhat behind the disc-drilled plots, but establishment was still good. This cost substantially higher, at around €34-€40/ac due to the limited availability of contractors with direct drills in the area.

Crops broadcast on to disced ground and rolled afterwards established reasonably well but lacked uniformity. This method cost around €15/ac.

Finally, crops broadcast directly on to the stubble ground and rolled had poor establishment but cost around €5/ac.

Protein levels

The crops from each establishment method will be monitored throughout the season. The second phase of the trial will attempt to quantify the amount of nitrogen those catch crops will provide for the subsequent spring malting barley crop. This will help determine the impact that these catch crops have on the yield and protein levels.

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