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What a difference in weather. This time last year, the summer heat-loving crops of winter barley and winter wheat were visibly thriving, basking in the June sunshine.
The appearance of thrive was borne out with the harvest giving good yields and, in the case of wheat, record bushel weights at least in my experience.
The cool moisture-loving crops of oats and beans were already struggling and again, as the harvest came, we had awful bushel weights for the oats as well as low yields and bleached straw, while the beans gave little more than half their normal yield.
I went down to look at the oats, dreading widespread lodging
This year, the position is reversed. I went down to look at the oats, dreading widespread lodging. In fact, the crop looked terrific, strong, healthy, vigorous and totally upright with the panicles full of promise, though it is still at least eight weeks to harvest.
The wheat and barley – both winter crops – need lots of warm but not baking sun to encourage starch formation and future ripening.
A continuation of present conditions is what will damage both quality and yield and, in the case of the seed wheat, premature germination that can too easily cause rejection.
While it’s early days yet, once a pattern is set for a summer in the May/early June period, it tends to last, but we will see.
Meanwhile, having grazed all the silage ground, we are preparing to take our first cut of silage
Meanwhile, we are now preparing for official inspections of both the seed crops and the gluten-free oats which are destined, all going well, for the high-value US food market – an outlet I firmly believe is worth protecting and developing.
Meanwhile, having grazed all the silage ground, we are preparing to take our first cut of silage. The crops look well with plenty of leaf, no seed heads in the late varieties and good bulk.
However, I am surprised at the amount of weeds, especially dandelions, in the latest reseed we did last September. It should be weed free at least for a few years.
I suspect that the high-pH peaty type soil that we intensively drained a number of years ago makes it different from the rest of the farm which is mainly a clay over limestone type soil with excellent swards after more than five years since reseeding.
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