The planting of winter cereals is now taking place at a breakneck pace in all areas across the country – what a difference a year makes.
Growers will want to take full opportunity of the excellent weather and ground conditions that now present themselves.
The reality is, that winter barley had a poor year in 2024, with many growers were questioning whether to stick with the crop during the season ahead.
However, winter barley crops can bring significant benefits to all tillage rotations.
Teagasc tillage specialist, Shay Phelan explained:
“Winter barley does have a lot of advantages in terms of spreading the workload. One benefit is the wide variety of choices available between two-row, six-row and six-row hybrids.
“All have their own advantages and disadvantages. When deciding on a variety, yield is often the deciding factor.
“But straw strength and the disease resistance profile can often add hidden costs that can be more important than the yield rating.”
Winter barley
According to Teagasc, KWS Tardis will again be the most popular variety and has a good overall package.
Cassia is now only used for quality markets, such as toasting, as the yield has slipped relative to other varieties.
Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) was an issue in 2023/24. But, for the year ahead, there are three varieties which have some tolerance, KWS Joyau, Molly and Orcade.
Integral is a conventional six-row with good straw strength, while the six-row hybrids Belfry, SY Armadillo, and SY Canyon are all high yielding and can be sown at lower seed rates.
Winter wheat
Meanwhile, in winter wheat, the choice of varieties is very limited, with just six. Graham (45%) will make up most of the available seed this year.
Dawsum had a mixed year in 2024 and it is very susceptible to septoria.
Spearhead and Torp are the other two fully recommended varieties, but Spearhead has an issue with sprouting, while Torp can get both yellow rust and fusarium.
Champion and Fitzroy are the two provisionally recommended varieties, and while Champion has relatively poor straw characteristics, only 2% of the seed available is Fitzroy.
Winter oats
In oats, Enya makes the recommended list this year along with Isabel and Husky. Enya has a similar yield to Husky and similar mildew resistance to both Isabel and Husky; however, it has a slightly lower score for lodging.