Patrick Kehoe, Bunclody, Co Wexford

Patrick Kehoe had a contractor in cutting hedges when we spoke on Monday. He is maintaining hedgerows on fields destined for winter barley. Patrick said he will most likely plant less winter barley this season, as input prices are high and there may be less risk planting spring crops.

His variety of choice for winter barley this year is KWS Joyau. Patrick got on well with it this season and the barley yellow dwarf tolerance makes it attractive to grow.

His spring beans were harvested on 2 September, just before the weather broke. They came in at 13.5%-14.5% moisture content. Patrick said they “didn’t break any records at 2.3t/ac”, but it’s important to take weight loss from low moisture contents into consideration.

The cover crops planted on the farm are looking good at present and there is a big difference between those planted after winter and spring barley, with more growth on the earlier sown crops.

Patrick had chopped the straw after the winter barley and was afraid this would have a negative impact on the cover crop’s establishment, but it did not seem to as the crop is growing very well.

Patrick has his own slurry and farmyard manure to apply to land ahead of winter barley and will apply some chicken manure as well.

He is busy fixing an odd thing on machines and in the farmyard ahead of the sowing season, while also applying to the new environmental scheme ACRES.

The sheep were dipped in recent weeks and there is fencing to be done as well, while cattle will soon be housed. Patrick is OK for winter feed at present.

He hopes to plant his winter barley around the middle of October, but this is, of course, weather permitting. Ground conditions changed dramatically since we spoke to Patrick four weeks ago, but the fields destined for winter barley are fairly dry.

Michael Grant, Newtoncunningham, Co Donegal

Michael was finishing his spring oats harvest this week.

Michael Grant had one more day’s cutting ahead of him when we spoke on Monday. Spring oats are the last crop to be harvested on the farm.

Up to now, yields of the crop were around 2.5t/ac and Michael was chopping the straw. Some of the straw was chopped under the straw incorporation measure (SIM), while some was chopped outside of the measure.

Michael had chopped a lot of headlands to make straw easier to work with and avoid turning. He still had some straw to bale earlier this week after last weekend’s cutting, but the forecast should allow that to be wrapped up this week. Straw does need to be brought into sheds, as Michael has a lot of orders for the winter. This job will coincide with grain drying. There was over 200t to be dried early this week, along with what was left to be harvested.

Most of the winter wheat and spring barley came in at 17%-18% moisture content, with the exception of a small bit which was finished after the rain. It’s a very busy farm at the minute.

There were five balers working on Saturday, as Michael got straw and silage baled up ahead of the rain. His father is keeping the grain drier going while Michael keeps the combine going.

Spring barley yielded around 2.5t/ac, while winter wheat looks to be averaging around 3.2t/ac, but Michael is only working out yields based on what’s going through the drier so these figures aren’t exact.

The winter wheat only received 150 units of nitrogen per acre. Some of the winter wheat after potatoes suffered from poorer ground conditions.

2023

Preparations are already under way for the 2023 season. Michael is cutting hedges at present. He has his seed ordered and is going for Belfry winter barley, a six-row hybrid.

He said he wanted a vigorous crop on some difficult ground. He has no oilseed rape this season, which is just the way the rotation fell. He will aim to plant from the start of October.

Séamus Duggan, Cullahill, Co Laois

Séamus harvested the peas and barley mix and treated the grain before storage.

Séamus still has a few cover crops to plant for others, but some of his own are already in flower. His cover crop mix from Diageo saw mustard take off and produce a yellow flower very quickly, but Séamus noted that some of the other plants like clover and buckwheat are only starting to get going now.

Séamus’s grain is all delivered and he commented that this is the first year that all of his barley passed for malting.

Séamus usually keeps some of his own grain to feed over the winter, but actually had to buy feed barley from a local farmer as he sent all of his crop for malting. Some of that barley is now rolled and treated.

Another crop that Séamus tried this year was a combi crop of spring barley and peas. The peas were lying low to the ground and he was afraid that there would be losses, but the crop was harvested easily enough.

It was harvested at 26%-27% moisture, but was rolled and treated and Séamus added some more dried barley to the mix to reduce protein levels.

The crop yielded about 2.6t/ac at high moisture levels and the straw was baled and chopped in different areas. The crop did not receive any sprays. It was planted after grass and received three bags of 10-10-20 per acre.

About 88mm of rain fell in the past two weeks on the farm and the beet is looking all the better for it, having been lying flat in the drill.

Looking ahead to winter barley planting, Séamus said he will definitely cut the area of the crop back. He grew winter malting barley this year and while Faye yielded about 3.6t/ac, the remainder of the varieties were not giving a big enough return on his land.

He added that there is not much difference in yield between spring and winter barley varieties this year and while the winter crop does help to spread the workload, the inputs are higher.

Séamus has bought some fertiliser for next season, but added that it’s a nervous position to be in.