While winter barley harvesting is already taking place, this video (taken in early July) talks about the challenges in getting winter barley crops uniform for harvesting and how to judge the stages for desiccation, if it is being considered.

This crop had many green stems present, despite the fact that most ears appeared to be between 24% and 22% moisture. But as well as green stems, there was also a small proportion of green heads within the crop from later tillers and some of these were still above 30% moisture. This situation is typical of many crops.

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’Earliest ever’ start to harvest in Cork

Tillage management: harvest looms, but maturity not uniform