Challenging harvest: Weather remains awkward for harvesting but winter barley is now virtually complete and winter oats is well underway.

Crop yields are best described as very variable without any very clear pattern.

Barley yields have ranged from 1.9 to over 5t/ac. This is huge variability but the majority of higher yields seem to be associated with good farming, rotation and the use of organic manures. Grain fill appears to be an issue in many, but not all, lower yields.

Spring barley has just begun, with good initial reports, and winter oats is being help up by broken weather.

The general winter oat report is good yields (either side of 4/t/ac) with goodish quality but this is not universal. Some intakes report disappointing quality from the early part of that harvest. Early winter wheat yields for crimping suggest 4.4t/ac at 20% moisture from Bennington and 3.5t/ac from Costello.

Straw: An amount of the straw that lay on the ground for the past few weeks has been baled and this will allow people back on land for stubble cultivation or whatever. Straw values are generally in the €15 to €18/4x4 bale but some growers have been willing to sell below €12/bale. It would seem that the quality and reliability of the bale is a factor.

Stubbles: Once stubbles are cleared it is good husbandry to get a shallow cultivation done immediately to encourage weed seed germination (especially grass weeds) as there is plenty moisture about.

It is equally good to plant some form of green cover, especially where the next crop will be spring sown. Catch crops, like any other manure source, are an investment in the future productivity of your land.

Keep stubble cultivation shallow. There is much lower risk from slugs this year so tighten cultivated ground to encourage germination. Keeping more of the trash close to the surface may also help aphid predators and that could be very valuable.

Catch crops also provide an opportunity to apply and soak up organic manures as a fertility builder but do not plant too early when using high N products like pig or poultry manure as you can get excess vegetation. Do not use poultry litter where you intend to graze.

Put some thought into what to plant for your situation. Rotation, time of planting etc. should all influence the species to plant.

Planting Rape: Target winter rape planting between mid to end of August. Use the later dates for fields treated with high N organic manures like pig or poultry.

Target seed rates should be 30-40 seeds/m2 for hybrids and 70-80 seeds/m2 for conventional varieties.

Clearfield varieties now offer a real opportunity to grow rape in land that is heavily infested with brassica weeds, volunteer rape or weeds like hedge mustard. Sowing a variety with a CL prefix enables the application of a specific herbicide – Cleranda – which can kill those brassica weeds but not damage that variety.