Why this Wexford farmer is trying Min Till for the first time

Fertilizers are expected to be extremely expensive again in 2023, and with grain prices falling, it becomes even more important to maximize fertilizer utilization to maintain profitability.

My goal is to increase the amount of organic fertilizer I apply to offset some of the chemical fertilizer applied.

I will also be reducing the amount of potassium I apply to my plants as most of my soil is either index 3 or 4 for K – on some of the very high index 4 soils I plan to omit the chemical K altogether.

This year I’ve decided to plant less winter barley and increase my acreage for spring beans – they seem like a more viable option as crop stock prices are rising. This decision has worked in my favor so far as October and much of November has been extremely wet making planting winter crops very difficult.

The winter barley I sown was sown on October 20 after beans. This was the first crop I grew with minimal tillage.

I did this to try and improve soil health and reduce the amount of work involved in establishing plants.

The seedbed was wet at the time of sowing, but the crop has established itself well, with actual plant counts averaging 280/m².

I’m not going to fully switch from plowing to mini-till just yet, but I will sow some of my spring crops using this method and evaluate its performance.

Long term goal is to set up all my crops with minimal tillage provided I can maintain the same profit margin compared to plowing.

The winter barley variety I used is Joyau, the same as last year – it produced good yields last harvest and is BYDV tolerant which means I can avoid using harmful insecticides.

Given the freezing temperatures of the past few weeks, I’ve rolled some of my cover crops to incorporate them and potentially eliminate the need for glyphosate in the spring. I’ve never tried this method before, so the results should be interesting.

John Crowley farms in Ferns, Co. Wexford