Johnston,
Co Donegal
David normally dries around 25% of his grain down to 14.5% moisture content for storage.
“August seems to be the month where it’s not really good for anything” remarks David, who had just three harvest days this month.
The showers have been consistently stopping harvest progress, with over 126.7mm of rain falling over the month so far. Last Sunday marked the first good drying day this month.
Despite the poor weather, David has been lucky and most of his remaining crops weren’t ripe until this week. As a result, crops have held up well and are standing with minimal cases of sprouting.
He started harvesting his Paustian spring feed barley last Friday and is happy with the results so far. It yielded between 3.65-3.75t/ac at 19%-20%mc with a specific weight of 65KPH.
This grain will be propcorned for storage this week. “You could tell when filling the trailers that the crop was going to do well” he says.
Green winter oat straw
David attempted to harvest his winter oats on Saturday and again on Monday. Despite grain moistures of 15.5%, he had to leave the crop as the straw was still too green.
He moved onto winter wheat on Sunday and managed to get half of his area cut before the weather broke.
So far the crop is averaging 4.3t/ac at 20%mc with a specific weight of 74KPH. He also cut most of his spring malting barley over the weekend.
This is David’s first time growing malting barley. So far, his Prospect crop has averaged 3.75t/ac at 9.9% protein, 21%mc and 62KPH. The crop received 112kg N/ha in spring.
All of the straw from the weekend’s harvest has yet to be baled.
David will not chop any straw this year, opting instead to bale and store any excess. His spring wheat is looking quite good and is just beginning to turn.
He now has around 40% of the harvest remaining. With heavy rain forecasted for the rest of the week, ground conditions are expected to deteriorate further.
Castlemagner,
Co Cork
Rob harvesting Bennington winter wheat yielding 4.2t/ac at 18.2%mc. The crop was broadcast using the Rauch Axis 30.2 spreader. The seed was then covered with a Väderstad Cultus and rolled.
With over 100mm of rain in 28 days during August, the harvest has also been a challenge in North Cork.
However, the weather had settled over the past week and like many tillage farmers, Rob was under serious pressure to get essential harvest work completed.
He cut his early Cellule winter wheat a number of weeks ago at relatively high moistures. The crop was harvested at around 24% mc and yielded around 4t/ac at 74KPH.
There was some sprouting in his later winter wheat crops but this was confined to a few lodged areas.
These crops were slightly overripe by the time they were harvested and he feels he could’ve lost between 0.25-0.5t/ac in yield as a result.
These crops of Graham and Costello yielded from 4 to 4.5t/ac, with first wheat after beans exceeding 4.5/ac. Bushel was generally 72 to 74 KPH, with moistures between 19% and 22%.
While the straw from the later harvested wheat is easier to bale, he opted to chop the headlands.
He completed his winter wheat harvest this week and credits his farm staff who put in long hours to make it happen.
After an uncertain growing year, Rob’s Gangway spring barley proved a success.
The crop was harvested 10 days ago and yielded 3.63t/ac at between 23-24%mc and at 65KPH. It’s worth remembering that all of Rob’s crops were grown without the use of aphicides.
The crop also yielded a strong 14 4x4 round bales/ac.
“The wet weather has forced some difficult decisions, especially when it comes to straw” says Rob, who had to buy a Browns straw chopper to chop some winter barley straw that had been lying for up to five weeks, partially delaying the planting of his nine-way cover crop mix.
Straw demand from his regular customers has been good and Rob believes that the market will pick up again.
His Fanfare spring beans are around five days ahead of his Lynx and Boxer varieties. All are leaning in different directions which could make harvesting a challenge.
Swords,
Co Dublin
Ronan finishing the last of his lodged spring malting barley.
Ronan’s harvest output increased considerably in the last week due to having a Massey Ferguson 7270 Beta combine on demonstration from WBD Farm Machinery.
Between the Massey and his own John Deere T660 combine, he was able to harvest 180ac of winter wheat and spring barley over the weekend.
August has been a broken month in north Dublin, explains Ronan. Having completed his winter oilseed harvest at the start of the month, he had an interval of 10 days where no harvesting took place.
There have been opportunities to cut over the past week and given another few days of settled weather, he will have caught up with his harvest.
When last talking to Ronan, he had just desiccated his oilseed rape. The crop was harvested at the start of August and his PT256 variety did between 1.9-2.1t/ac at 9%mc.
He chopped the straw on account of lack of market demand. Ronan is aiming to plant next year’s winter oilseed crop next week and is currently ploughing that ground.
He started harvesting winter wheat 10 days ago. He had small amounts of sprouting in his Bennington variety, but the sample was still quite clean.
So far, his wheat is averaging over 4t/ac at between 19.5%-20% mc. Specific weights are around 72KPH. Ronan notes that the colour has faded from his straw. All of his wheat straw has yet to be baled and will go for composting.
He is harvesting his malting barley crop this week, but around 50% of it had lodged so he is unsure if it will pass. So far the crop is yielding 3t/ac at 18% mc.
His 30ac of spring wheat will be ready to cut next week if the weather holds. His spring beans are just beginning to turn and are all standing well.
Blight pressure has been high in August, with the average humidity at 86%. Ronan had to shorten his interval to five days and apply Revus (0.6l/ha) in response to leaf blight.
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Johnston,
Co Donegal
David normally dries around 25% of his grain down to 14.5% moisture content for storage.
“August seems to be the month where it’s not really good for anything” remarks David, who had just three harvest days this month.
The showers have been consistently stopping harvest progress, with over 126.7mm of rain falling over the month so far. Last Sunday marked the first good drying day this month.
Despite the poor weather, David has been lucky and most of his remaining crops weren’t ripe until this week. As a result, crops have held up well and are standing with minimal cases of sprouting.
He started harvesting his Paustian spring feed barley last Friday and is happy with the results so far. It yielded between 3.65-3.75t/ac at 19%-20%mc with a specific weight of 65KPH.
This grain will be propcorned for storage this week. “You could tell when filling the trailers that the crop was going to do well” he says.
Green winter oat straw
David attempted to harvest his winter oats on Saturday and again on Monday. Despite grain moistures of 15.5%, he had to leave the crop as the straw was still too green.
He moved onto winter wheat on Sunday and managed to get half of his area cut before the weather broke.
So far the crop is averaging 4.3t/ac at 20%mc with a specific weight of 74KPH. He also cut most of his spring malting barley over the weekend.
This is David’s first time growing malting barley. So far, his Prospect crop has averaged 3.75t/ac at 9.9% protein, 21%mc and 62KPH. The crop received 112kg N/ha in spring.
All of the straw from the weekend’s harvest has yet to be baled.
David will not chop any straw this year, opting instead to bale and store any excess. His spring wheat is looking quite good and is just beginning to turn.
He now has around 40% of the harvest remaining. With heavy rain forecasted for the rest of the week, ground conditions are expected to deteriorate further.
Castlemagner,
Co Cork
Rob harvesting Bennington winter wheat yielding 4.2t/ac at 18.2%mc. The crop was broadcast using the Rauch Axis 30.2 spreader. The seed was then covered with a Väderstad Cultus and rolled.
With over 100mm of rain in 28 days during August, the harvest has also been a challenge in North Cork.
However, the weather had settled over the past week and like many tillage farmers, Rob was under serious pressure to get essential harvest work completed.
He cut his early Cellule winter wheat a number of weeks ago at relatively high moistures. The crop was harvested at around 24% mc and yielded around 4t/ac at 74KPH.
There was some sprouting in his later winter wheat crops but this was confined to a few lodged areas.
These crops were slightly overripe by the time they were harvested and he feels he could’ve lost between 0.25-0.5t/ac in yield as a result.
These crops of Graham and Costello yielded from 4 to 4.5t/ac, with first wheat after beans exceeding 4.5/ac. Bushel was generally 72 to 74 KPH, with moistures between 19% and 22%.
While the straw from the later harvested wheat is easier to bale, he opted to chop the headlands.
He completed his winter wheat harvest this week and credits his farm staff who put in long hours to make it happen.
After an uncertain growing year, Rob’s Gangway spring barley proved a success.
The crop was harvested 10 days ago and yielded 3.63t/ac at between 23-24%mc and at 65KPH. It’s worth remembering that all of Rob’s crops were grown without the use of aphicides.
The crop also yielded a strong 14 4x4 round bales/ac.
“The wet weather has forced some difficult decisions, especially when it comes to straw” says Rob, who had to buy a Browns straw chopper to chop some winter barley straw that had been lying for up to five weeks, partially delaying the planting of his nine-way cover crop mix.
Straw demand from his regular customers has been good and Rob believes that the market will pick up again.
His Fanfare spring beans are around five days ahead of his Lynx and Boxer varieties. All are leaning in different directions which could make harvesting a challenge.
Swords,
Co Dublin
Ronan finishing the last of his lodged spring malting barley.
Ronan’s harvest output increased considerably in the last week due to having a Massey Ferguson 7270 Beta combine on demonstration from WBD Farm Machinery.
Between the Massey and his own John Deere T660 combine, he was able to harvest 180ac of winter wheat and spring barley over the weekend.
August has been a broken month in north Dublin, explains Ronan. Having completed his winter oilseed harvest at the start of the month, he had an interval of 10 days where no harvesting took place.
There have been opportunities to cut over the past week and given another few days of settled weather, he will have caught up with his harvest.
When last talking to Ronan, he had just desiccated his oilseed rape. The crop was harvested at the start of August and his PT256 variety did between 1.9-2.1t/ac at 9%mc.
He chopped the straw on account of lack of market demand. Ronan is aiming to plant next year’s winter oilseed crop next week and is currently ploughing that ground.
He started harvesting winter wheat 10 days ago. He had small amounts of sprouting in his Bennington variety, but the sample was still quite clean.
So far, his wheat is averaging over 4t/ac at between 19.5%-20% mc. Specific weights are around 72KPH. Ronan notes that the colour has faded from his straw. All of his wheat straw has yet to be baled and will go for composting.
He is harvesting his malting barley crop this week, but around 50% of it had lodged so he is unsure if it will pass. So far the crop is yielding 3t/ac at 18% mc.
His 30ac of spring wheat will be ready to cut next week if the weather holds. His spring beans are just beginning to turn and are all standing well.
Blight pressure has been high in August, with the average humidity at 86%. Ronan had to shorten his interval to five days and apply Revus (0.6l/ha) in response to leaf blight.
Read more
Listen: new grass measuring technology at the Ploughing
Tractor run for cancer charity takes place this Saturday in Donegal
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