Michael Martin
Rathnure, Co Wexford
Harvest is now well underway on Michael’s farm, with the winter barley safely in the shed. While grain moisture levels were excellent, yields unfortunately did not live up to expectations.
“To be honest, the winter barley looked fantastic all season and promised plenty, but it just didn’t deliver the result we were hoping for,” says Michael.
Much of the disappointment is being attributed to the difficult spring and BYDV reduced grain size in many fields too. While the final yield monitor figures made for disappointing reading, there was at least one positive.
“If you’re looking at the glass half full, the crops certainly produced plenty of straw,” he says. “In many fields we were getting up to 10 bales per acre, so there was some compensation there.”
The crops of winter oats on the farm were decent, and Michael was happy with how they yielded. Attention now turns to the winter oilseed rape, which is being harvested at the moment. “The oilseed rape crop is looking well, so hopefully it’ll restore a bit of confidence after the barley,” Michael explains.
The spring barley is coming in exceptionally quickly and the harvest is expected to begin on Saturday, although Michael remains realistic about expectations. “It’ll be interesting to see if the spring crops can bounce back from the winter barley, but I wouldn’t be holding my breath. Hopefully they’ll surprise us.”
Away from the harvest, the prolonged dry spell is beginning to leave its mark. Fodder beet is showing signs of drought stress, with growth noticeably restricted over recent weeks. In contrast, the maize, which was sown without plastic once again this year, has thrived in the warm conditions.
“It was slow to get going after sowing, but it’s growing by the hour now and has really come into its own. It’s looking exceptionally well,” notes Michael.
Nicholas Ryan
Clonmel, Co Tipperary
There has been a great start to the harvest in Tipperary, with the weather making harvesting easier for man and machine.
Nicholas started the harvest in winter barley for his uncle before moving to his own winter oats. They performed really well, yielding 3.75t/ac at a very low moisture content of 11%.
Nicholas says the oats were in a field that can hold on that bit longer during a drought, which helped keep the yield up.
The straw was chopped under the Straw Incorporation Measure. The winter oilseed rape was next and most of this was chopped too. However, the stalks were very green and the combine’s chopper blocked up a number of times, which led Nicholas to turning off the chopper for the greenest part of the crop.
Despite the green stalks, the pods were very dry, with the driest loads coming in at 6% moisture. Nicholas was happy enough with the crop as it yielded 1.9t/ac.
Of course, he notes there was a considerable penalty from harvesting the crop at this moisture level through weight loss from the seeds.
The winter rye is coming in quickly and may be ready to cut in the next couple of days. The winter wheat and spring barley are not that far behind it and could be in by the end of the month. Nicholas is hopeful for these crops, especially the spring barley. He says it is very uniform and looks to have nice ears.
No stubble cultivation or planting of cover crops has taken place on the farm yet. Nicholas notes that patience will be needed and it will be done once some rainfall arrives.
Nicholas held an open day on his farm at the start of the month to showcase the grass and tillage research he is conducting. He says it was great to see lots of interest in the work that is taking place and would like to thank all those who attended.
Donald Logue
Muff, Co Donegal
The weather has been outstanding in Donegal but the harvest has not yet begun for Donald. His organic winter oats have some areas that are ripe enough but other areas still have soft grains and green straw.
However, he hopes to get started in the next couple of days. Donald is looking forward to getting into it and trying out a new-to-him combine.
The dry weather will be very helpful for harvesting, especially for an organic crop in Donald’s part of the world. There is no lodging at all in the crop and it is fully clean of weeds but Donald says the grains seem to be a bit on the small side. However, only time will tell how the crop yields. In any case, it won’t be a record-breaking yield.
Donald plans to sell some of the grain straight off the combine but he will keep some of it to sell over the winter. He also might take some of the oats and mix them through his mixed crop of peas and barley before selling to organic farmers.
The mixed crop looks fantastic at the moment. Donald has been impressed by the pea variety, Ingrid, which is standing very well and set a good number of pods very quickly after flowering.
It will probably be September by the time the crop is cut but this could be brought forward if the hot, dry weather continues.
The winter oats straw will be baled and so will half of the mixed crop, but the other half has been entered in the Straw Incorporation Measure.
The potatoes look well at the moment but Donald is a bit worried that they will be negatively affected if the weather continues in its current vein.
They looked very well at flowering but Donald says they seem to have slowed down in their progress over the past week or two.
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