Challenging harvest: Many growers got some harvesting done over the past week. Winter barley is now nearing completion and the focus turns to winter rape, oats and spring barley. The forecast indicates better weather ahead, which may help get cutting up to date and straw cleared.

As indicated a few weeks ago, the harvest offered nothing better as it moved north. Many winter barley crops came in at less than 2.5t/ac with only five to six bales of straw – down by more than 50%. Together these point to loss-making crops.

Crop yields are best described as highly variable without any clear pattern between varieties, two-row versus six-row or hybrid versus non-hybrid. The only clear line appears to be north versus south, or rain versus little rain in April/May.

Spring barley growers now face the dilemma of if or when to burn off crops that are 50% almost ripe and 50+% green with late tillers.

Late tillers: This problem is common to many crops and caused by the June rain releasing nitrogen and thin crops allowing light down to their base to trigger new tillers. The scale of the problem differs between fields. In some fields the late tillers are mainly in the tramlines; in others they are in big patches that were poorly established or hit by drought. Uniformly thin fields have a problem throughout.

There is no simple or single advice. Crop uses for which glyphosate is banned may see some crops sprayed off and cut for feed or possibly allowed to mature further. Crops that may still make the quality spec for a premium use might be allowed to mature as much as possible before harvest, before brackling and head loss become an issue.

Most decisions will be a compromise between allowing the green tillers to mature further, balanced with the risk of ear loss on the mature stems. Where green tillers are mainly in the tramlines, it is suggested that a tractor drive all the tramtracks to knock down those stems to allow the combine to drive over them. But this should be done as close as possible to the time of cutting or they can bend back up again.

Straw: The market has not yet matured but some growers are reporting between €15 and €18 per 4x4 bale. There will be significantly less straw than last year given the yields in much of the centre of the country. Some growers are already chopping headlands and other areas where there were a lot of green tillers.

Land destined for early planting might be chopped so as not to get caught with straw on the ground when planting should be done, as was the case in some recent years.

Stubbles: Once stubbles are cleared, aim to get a shallow cultivation done to encourage weed seed germination (especially grass weeds) as there is plenty moisture about. If you have plenty time before the next crop is planted, consider putting in a cheap catch crop just to have something growing but do that on the second cultivation rather than the first to maximise the benefit of the stale seedbed.