The 2021 harvest is imminent, with the projected hot weather expected to complete ripening of winter barley in those pockets where harvesting always starts first.

Farmers are optimistic for their winter crops, with near ideal grain-fill weather recently.

KWS Joyau, a new and early-ripening variety, may well be first to be harvested in east Cork and south Tipperary, the country’s earliest ripening areas.

The prospects for the spring harvest are similarly good.

Heavy straw crops should see the extra straw yield largely offset what was lost to the market through the straw incorporation scheme.

Recent fluctuations leave prices at their highest pre-harvest levels for some years. All eyes are on predictions for the US maize crop and on what effect the intense heat in the grain belts of the US and Canada may have on yields.