Richard Hackett: Water control is a big issue — we have to grasp the nettle, and retailers must play their part

They say no two years are alike, and at most levels the fervent hope is that 2021 is as different from 2020 as possible.

In terms of the weather, however, there have been many similarities between last year and this year.

In the early stage of the first lockdown, the weather played a key part in keeping the nation’s spirits up, and the last week or so has done the same this time round too.

The dry weather we have experienced in this part of the world, really since the middle of February, also has had some real benefits on our crops.

But like always, too much of a good thing mightn’t be all it’s cracked up to be.

The dry weather has given us a great opportunity to get spring crops into the ground, especially cereals, potatoes and vegetable crops.

Growers have been able to plan ahead, and implement these plans on a daily basis. Great progress has been made in plantings and like last year, crops planted early will mature early and can be harvested early — always a risk, given our preference for late-maturing potato varieties.

The dry weather has also given a great opportunity for soils to dry out.

Soils have received a pounding over the last few years and they are in dire need of a prolonged dry spell to reduce moisture levels to depth and let a bit of natural cracking and remediation take place.

 

Prolonged

Unfortunately, while the soils may benefit from a prolonged dry spell, the crops planted in these soils certainly do not want one.

Fortunately, it’s not something we often get, but we are extremely ill-prepared to take on dry spells in this part of the world, especially in crop production.

The crops we grow, the varieties we use, the drainage systems we have installed, and the cropping programmes we have developed are all based on the assumption of regular applications of small amounts of water over the entire growing season.

Sometimes we get a little too much, sometimes we get a little too little, and each time this happens, significant production losses occur.

Last year was a case in point. Over the entire year, rainfall levels were the highest recorded in many places for years, but the biggest production losses occurred from a few weeks of dry weather at a critical time of crop development, in May and into June.

The growing season so far has been very dry, but growth has been impacted more by the cold rather than the wet.

So far crop production has not suffered from the cold weather; in fact the cold weather has been a benefit.

Cold weather is a great fungicide, a great insecticide and a great plant growth regulator, and winter crops are the main beneficiaries. Aphids and diseases like yellow rust have been held back considerably, and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies should reflect this free ‘pesticide’ effect.

It’s only when we get to May and June that temperatures can really impact on crop growth rates. However, unless we get a decent amount of rain by then, soil moisture levels could again be an impediment to crop production this year.

Whenever it stops raining for a few hours, the amount of irrigation equipment pressed into service gets unseemly.

As has been pointed out before, the east coast of Ireland isn’t blessed with any major rivers, and water for irrigation purposes is scarce during a dry spell.

Pulling water from a stream where wildlife and fish are in dire need of it is a nettle that eventually will have to be grasped — especially in the case of these huge rain guns that are very inefficient at converting available water in the river to actual moisture available to the plant.

Far too much water is lost to volatilisation and run-off in these systems.

Conversations on water control strategies do not begin with the grower; they begin with the retailer, or more importantly the Quality Control department of the intermediary purchaser for the retailer.

More often than not, irrigation is applied for quality purposes, not quantitative purposes. Most crops once established can wait for water to yield, but skin blemishes like common scab etc or reduced produce size such as broccoli head weights can be affected.

Changing simple things like the specification to suit the production environments of a particular year could have more environmental benefits than many of the pseudo-environmental crusades retailers are so fond of harping on about.

Richard Hackett is an agronomist based in north Co Dublin. He is a member of the ITCA and ACA

 

Indo Farming