Except for the beans, our 2018 harvest is complete. Having begun with a good but not exceptional winter barley of around 3.8t per acre, with bushel weights of up to 70kg, we then went on to the oats. I knew from walking through the crop that it was not going to be the same. As I said last week, it wasn’t. Lots of straw but a disappointing 3.2t to 3.3t per acre and a reduced bushel weight. If this is to be the pattern of summers to come, then the place of oats on the farm has to be questioned.

Normally, the rotation is for the oats to follow the oilseed rape and we cut this year’s oilseed rape at the end of last week. It was undoubtedly the best oilseed rape I have ever had. Up to this year, the target of 2t/acre was a distant unattainable dream – not any longer.

The main field did a strong 2t/acre. Mind you, I still have to get moisture and oil percentages but if it were not for a poor section in the smaller second field we would have had an overall average of over 2t. We will be a bit below that figure but not much. The main crop was a dense mass of branches with well-filled pods that obviously thrived in the frost-free sunny filling period. It was also the first year I had a real demand for the rape straw.

After the oilseed rape, we moved into the wheat. Never in my life have I begun to harvest the wheat on the last day of the Galway Races and before the Dublin Horse Show. The crops seem adequate but no more than that. I will have the final weights over the next few days.

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