I don’t think I have ever made hay in the first fortnight in June nor have I made hay for many years without a drop of rain.

This year, we have managed to do both.

We have missed the thunderstorms that seemed to affect other parts of the country and so, with more turning than normal because of the earliness in the year, I reckon we have made the best hay that we have ever made – a welcome start to the fodder saving season.

Warm temperatures

The effect of the warm temperatures and no rain is having visible and varying effects on the crops.

Winter barley is turning more quickly than I have ever seen it, except for the exceptional summer of 1984 when we harvested it on 4 July. How many people still remember that summer?

The beans sown too late could, in my view, badly do with rain and while the warm weather has encouraged growth, the lack of moisture is definitely telling with a degree of premature flowering beginning to take place. What effect this will have on the eventual yield, I have no idea.

The crops actually benefitting seem to be the winter wheat and oilseed rape, while the winter oats look well. I normally would agree with the Teagasc view as expressed by Sean Finnan at a growers’ meeting the other morning that prolonged heat and drought sap oats’ energy to thrive. Again, we will have to wait and see.

On the cattle side, we are continuing to sell bulls as they become fit.

So far, having not begun replacing but given the amount of grass that has built up, we have a quandary in getting maximum performance while keeping the grass under control.

We are inevitably going to have to do more topping than normal.

Visible cracking

One feature that has really struck me is how the ground, which is not particularly heavy, has developed really visible cracking in the dry warm weather.

While this is excellent for rebuilding structure on clay soils after the difficult spring, I have never seen it so early in the season.