There were as many as seven different grass species present in the imported samples of winter barley that were intercepted by IFA in Drogheda early in the harvest.

Some of these species are, unfortunately, already present but others like blackgrass are species that we badly need to keep out.

Samples from the ship were given to the Irish Farmers Journal and the admix of weed seeds was isolated and sent for identification. Experts identified blackgrass seeds in the sample in copious amounts. Alopecurus myosuroides or blackgrass seeds are quite small in size and they seemed to be the most numerous contaminant by number but not by volume or weight.

While all seeds might be killed in these samples where they are being finely ground for compounding, many of these seeds would probably pass unscathed through a roller mill undamaged if the barley was being crushed. This could leave them totally viable where such a coarse ration was to be fed out on the land.

The other species present are nearly all in Irish fields already and these included Bromus sterilis (sterile brome), Bromus hordaceus (soft brome), Avena fatua (wild oats) and both Italian and Perennial ryegrass. One other species present was less well known and may not be present in Ireland to any great extent and that was Bromus secalinus or rye brome. This latter species has relatively tight spikelets similar to soft or meadow brome but this one will show obvious gaps between the individual florets when mature as the seeds tend to become tightly in-rolled to push one another apart.