The first leg of the harvest has been safely completed. We finished the winter barley on Saturday evening. We were forced to stop late Friday afternoon after a heavy shower but given the weather since then, I am glad it’s done and gone. We had three fields and as far as I can gauge, each field did exactly the same – 3.75t/acre to 3.8t/acre. Not outstanding by any stretch, but a reasonable workmanlike result. However, I bumped into a friend who farms in the Carlow/Kilkenny area and he had grown one of the new hybrid varieties. His yield had varied from just over 5t to a full 6t/acre. I had never contemplated yields like that from winter barley, but I certainly have to wonder if we are on the cusp of a new technological breakthrough.

The downside of this year’s winter barley harvest is the collapse in the straw market. We have baled all I need for the cattle and we will probably sell the rest on the flat at a derisory price. I have also tested the market for my first ever crop of oaten straw and again, this seems almost non-existant.

The next crops to be harvested are the oats and oilseed rape and then the wheat. Walking up a tramline in one of the fields of wheat, beside a disused fox covert, I was surprised to see significant trampling. It took a while to figure out what was going on until we saw a deer.

Part of the advantage of farming beside stud farms is that the fencing is excellent, so we have been spared what I gather has been an increasing scourge in west Wicklow and east Kildare. Wild deer are a real menace on some farms and there seems to be a reluctance to allow them to be culled. This is nonsense.

Humane culling should be allowed at all times of the year and all gun clubs should be encouraged to have a skilled marksman able to dispatch them. In our own case, the deer seem to have escaped some years ago from a local walled demesne, but that should not give them immunity from being shot.

One result of the broken weather and reseeding over the last few years has been an abundance of grass. We have baled a lot and are due to take a second cut of silage as soon as possible. However, if every other cattle man has as much as I have, I am not surprised stores are as dear as they are.