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While some winter cereals are sown in most areas, progress is significantly behind.
Poor ground conditions due to very wet weather have made ground preparation and planting difficult, and some farmers have yet to start planting any cereals.
Many growers who established winter crops through minimum tillage last autumn have now returned to using the plough and drills are staying tight behind.
Estimates put the planned planted cereal area at just 15%.
Winter barley
Some growers have now returned some winter barley seed and are making adjustments to their rotation to accommodate more spring crops in 2020.
If conditions do not improve over the week, there is likely to be a substantial drop in winter cereal acreage this year.
Maize harvest
The 2019 maize harvest has been going reasonably well with good yields reported so far.
However, poor ground conditions have been hard on machinery and soil structure.
Demand from livestock farmers for beet is beginning to increase, with some growers now lifting an amount of crop to satisfy their market.
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