Conor Callan, Ardee, Co Louth
The harvest began on Sunday for Conor in Louth.
The weather came at just the right time for the winter barley to bring it in without affecting grain fill and the final yield. With most of the barley cut on Tuesday morning, Conor thought it would average 3.5t/ac.
The moisture was coming in at 14% with a KPH of 63. While the yield isn’t huge, Conor says it’s decent for the year that’s in it.
The trailers did seem to weigh pretty well, so Conor was waiting on Tuesday to get a final yield. There is a nice row of straw behind the combine but Conor says he needs to keep the header up on the combine when cutting the tramlines as the ruts are quite deep from fertilising and spraying earlier in the year when the ground was soft.
Perfect conditions
He says it’s great that the straw will be able to be baled in perfect conditions and there should be no great rush to get it all done.
The winter wheat looks fairly well on the farm. Conor says it is starting to burn in and the colour of the crop has changed rapidly over the past week.
This is a worry as grain fill might finish earlier than Conor would like, reducing the final yield.
He says he would prefer if it slowed down a bit as the current weather is “shoving the crop to the finish line”.
The maize is doing really well in the weather at the moment. The earliest-sown crop is very tall; Conor says it must be reaching 11’ in height after being at 6’ two weeks ago.
The rest of the maize is at 8’ but is quickly catching up.
Conor says it is jumping up rapidly with the heat and the moisture that is still in the ground. The crop is a lovely lush green and should have great potential this year.
Stephen Wallace, Mountrath, Co Laois
The weather has been glorious in Laois over the past two weeks, but the harvest is only kicking off for Stephen.
There were a good few areas with a large number of green grains in Stephen’s winter barley, so he decided to leave the crop an extra few days and to only start cutting in the second half of this week.
Digestate was spread on the crop in the spring on 12m tramlines, which has left tracks with greener grains.
Some of Stephen’s winter crops also have a second flush of wild oats coming through, where the soil was disturbed in the tramlines.
These wild oats germinated after the herbicide was applied but Stephen thinks they will not set seed before the crops are harvested.
The winter wheat is still green and is getting through the hot temperatures quite well. Stephen would be very surprised if there is a July harvest and says the crop has good potential.
The winter oilseed rape is still quite green, too. It was sowed late and looked poor earlier this year, but Stephen says it has turned inside out. There are no black seeds in the pods just yet, so harvest is still a while away.
The winter rye will be fit to cut in two to three weeks. The crop is still quite green. It is about 5’6” tall but is still standing well.
The spring barley looks good in places, but in others it is only okay. Stephen is not expecting any big yields, but the crop was only sowed at the end of April, so he is happy enough.
One small field is suffering from the effects of compaction after drainage work was carried out during the winter months.
The spring oats look well and are very green. They won’t break any records, but Stephen says their main purpose is as a break crop so it won’t matter too much.
Shaun Diver Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly
The weather has been lovely in Tullamore, but it does not come without challenges.
Shaun says that the grass is burning up, and he has not been able to get slurry or fertiliser out over the past number of weeks due to how dry the weather is. He is hoping that the weather does not stress the cows too much, which is made all the more important by the fact they are over a month on from breeding.
Shaun is weaning the lambs this week, which should slightly reduce his demand for grass, but if there is no rain in the next week, he says grass will become very tight on the farm.
The tillage fields are on the heavier part of the farm this year, so there is still some moisture in the ground, and they seem to be holding up quite well.
The spring barley looks a lot better now than it did earlier in the year when the BYDV was very evident.
The grains are filling nicely, and Shaun says that the worry now would be that, if it did rain, the crop could lodge as the heads look heavy enough. However, he notes that there are no bad crops that lodge, so he is hopeful it will yield well. He says the crop will come in quite quickly if the high temperatures continue as they are, and it could affect grain fill too.
The wholecrop combi-crop is only middling. Shaun says the barley never really got going, and there is not a huge biomass in the crop.
The peas are beginning to fill their pods, but it will be a while before the crop is ready to be harvested. Shaun hopes that this means there is still plenty of time for the crop to bulk up in the coming weeks.
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