The spring planting of grain will be all but complete by the weekend. There has been some excellent weather in recent days, allowing farmers in areas that have been behind this spring to finally make significant headway in the fields.

There was heavy rain in many parts on Thursday night last week, but excellent drying has seen the backlog eaten into this week. The good forecast for the next few days will see barley (and it’s practically all barley bar wholecrop) largely wrapped up.

Maize planting continued apace as well, and most maize to be sown under plastic will be in by the weekend. Maize is now being sown in the open. Demand for seed for sowing without plastic has increased as the calendar has moved on, but supplies are more than tight. Beet planting is also progressing well.

Potato producers continue to make progress with planting nearing the halfway mark, although large regional variations can be seen. Growers in the northwest are 60-70% complete, while growers along the east, south and southeast are around 40% complete.

The window for planting early potatoes has long passed, with as little as 500 acres planted. However, this area is likely to be replaced with maincrop potatoes.

Despite the delay in planting maincrop potatoes, growers have stated their intention to continue planting. This means that there is unlikely to be a major reduction in acreage this year.

Field vegetable planting progress is also nearing 50% complete but equal variations are observed around the county. For both vegetables and potatoes, many of the earlier planted crops were drilled in less than ideal seedbeds. Colder seedbeds meant that crops were slow to emerge. It remains to be seen if there will be any yield implications.