Combines make progress in dry weather

Pa Shine, Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary

The combine was busy in Tipperary last week, as Pa tried to make best use of the good weather. The winter barley averaged 4t/ac, ranging from 3.7t/ac to 4.4t/ac. It averaged 10 round bales/ac, with more and better-quality bales from the KWS Tardis than the KWS Joyau crop. Pa is very happy with the crop’s performance.

The winter oats have also been cut and baled. These were divided into gluten-free oats and oats for Flahavan’s. They averaged 3.7t/ac and 10 bales/ac.

All of the oaten straw was turned once with a single-rotor rake. Pa says the straw after his rotary combine is a bit broken up and couldn’t take much handling.

He also says that a bit of straw yield is lost with the rotary.

The winter oilseed rape was up next and this ranged from 1.8t/ac to 2.3t/ac. Pa puts the high yield down to a very fertile piece of land that is not long out of grass.

The crop also got pig slurry before planting. The moisture content began at 12%, but dropped to 8% by the time he was finishing on Saturday.

Pa will run a ripper through the tramlines to repair some damage caused this year, before incorporating the chopped straw for the SIM. The winter wheat is now ripe and Pa will be hoping to cut it in the next few days.

By the time he has finished this, he expects his spring oats to be ripe.

These were sown in early March, so they are ahead of most crops in the country. The spring barley is a bit further behind, about a fortnight away from being ready.

Pa has one May-sown field and he says it has become rotten with ramularia in the past few weeks. He hopes it will not affect yield too much.

Alistair Craig, Limavady, Co Derry

After a few great days last week, 20mm of rain fell on Sunday, while Monday felt like a winter’s day for Alistair. The winter barley was not fully ripe, but he decided to make a start on it during the good weather. Twenty acres of KWS Tardis for seed were cut at 20% moisture. It produced a great yield, which will be around 4t/ac when dried. Alistair also cut 10ac of his 10-way variety mix.

This did not do quite as well, but he was never expecting it to, as it was planted in poor and wet spots, because it was home-saved seed. Alistair still thinks it will yield over 3.5t/ac. All of the straw will be baled for use on the farm, but none of it has been done so far.

The winter oilseed rape is now ripe too. It looks like a good crop and a yield of 2t/ac is expected. This will also be baled and used for bedding.

The winter wheat is at least three weeks away and probably won’t be cut in August. Despite this, the crop looks good. Sunshine is required now to bring it in a bit sooner.

Alistair whole-cropped the winter rye a couple of weeks ago. It yielded 16.5t/ac, which is back 20% from last year, but is still a good return.

Farmyard manure was spread on these fields in the past few days and incorporated, as winter oilseed rape will be planted here in the next couple of weeks.

The spring beans look healthy, but they are quite far behind. The pods are only just beginning to form and Alistair thinks it won’t be ready for whole-cropping for at least another month.

The forage maize loved the sunshine and heat last week and is beginning to grow above the sunflowers. There is a huge canopy on the crop, so Alistair hopes this translates into a good yield. He plans to harvest this in October and go straight in with winter wheat.

Alex Butler, Street, Co Westmeath

Alex is now preparing for sowing once again with the spreading of dung, as he waits for the winter wheat to ripen. He pushed hard last week and is happy with how the crops have performed so far.

The winter barley is finished and baled. The best of it yielded 4.1t/ac, with a farm average of 3.6t/ac. The straw was light, with an average of seven bales/ac. He puts the highest yields that he achieved down to slurry and an ideal date and conditions at sowing.

Alex is very happy with the organic winter oats as they yielded 2t/ac at 17 to 18% moisture. It was easy to see the differences in soil fertility both within and between fields. All the straw was chopped and will be incorporated this week, which will allow stale seedbeds to be created.

The winter oilseed rape yielded 1.6t/ac at 8-10% moisture content. Alex was very happy with this, especially as some of the fields would not usually produce good yields.

The winter wheat is still a week away. There is still some green in the crop and the heads are still facing upwards. Some of the wheat got tossed recently in bad weather, but Alex is taking this as a sign of good potential. The spring crops are still quite a bit away. The organic spring oats will be cut near the end of the month. The spring barley will follow and it looks like a good crop, but the grains are still at the milky stage. The spring beans are quite tall. Alex says the thinner patches have come into their own in the past few weeks. There’s not much chocolate spot in the crop, except for one or two isolated patches.

The maize is loving the recent heat and is coming close to the tasselling stage. The spring oilseed rape has finished flowering. Alex says that the weather in the past few weeks has really suited it.