Winter barley harvesting got underway in earnest last weekend with crops now harvested from Cork to Donegal. Many crops were cut a bit sooner than expected, partly due to the good harvest conditions but also partly because poor grain fill enabled many crops to dry down quicker.

Yield reports from harvested crops have been very variable so far, but they seem to be improving as harvesting progresses. Moisture levels were generally low, and yields vary from around 2.5 t/ac to above 4.1t/ac.

Some growers were not surprised by the low yields because individual crops had suffered substantial virus damage and both take-all and moisture stress exaggerated this problem.

However, yields seem to have improved in recent days as the poorer crops have been cleared first. Now there ?seems to be more reports of crops yielding 3.5t/ac and higher. Hopefully this will continue.

It would appear from reports that earlier planted crops have been amongst the poorest to date, even on individual farms.

Grain quality has also been very variable, with small grains giving high screenings, high protein and low specific weights. But this is not universal, and better crops are now being harvested and producing specific weights up close to 70kph before drying. Moisture levels have been low too as crops have dried down quite quickly.

Grain prices

Grain prices continue to bounce around having improved since the middle of last week.

However, they weakened again so far this week as fears of an economic downturn continue to permeate market sentiment. Dry harvest prices are now around €340-€350/t for wheat and €325-€335/t for barley.