Harvest: Many people are now completely finished the harvest, while others have an odd crop to cut, mainly beans. Try and get these crops cut in the coming days. Moisture levels are generally low in crops and people are waiting on stalks to turn colour. There are still a good number of bean crops to be harvested. Late-sown crops or crops which got fungicide later in the season are another bit away.

Oilseed rape: There has been a bit of rain, although the wind is drying out land quickly. However, there are showers in the forecast which will be a big help to oilseed rape crops that are planted. Try and get crops in over the coming days to get them off to a good start to use soil nitrogen and build a strong canopy to fight pest attacks. Keep an eye out for slugs. Apply a pre-emergence herbicide where possible within 48 hours of planting. Katamaran Turbo and Butisan S/Rapsan 500 are options. There are a number of options that can be applied later in the season, but it might be wise to apply the herbicide while you are sure of travelling.

Catch crops: Don’t forget to send in your declaration form to the Farming for Water Programme. If you sowed crops before 1 August to remain in place until 30 September then you need to send in the declaration form by 8 September, and all other crops need to be declared by 1 October.

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Use up pesticides: Firebird Met, which contains the now banned product metribuzin, can no longer be sold from the end of the month. Growers who have Firebird Met in their chemical stores should use it on their winter crops this season. The use up date on the product is 24 November. Firebird, which does not contain metribuzin, will still be available, but growers must use the product by December 2026. Flufenacet which is contained in Firebird is being banned in the EU and will no longer be on sale from 31 May 2026 and must be used by 10 December 2026.

Crop diversification: A reminder that you must follow the crop diversification rules for 2026, growing two crops if you have 10-30ha of tillage crops and growing at least three crops if you have over 30ha of crops.

Rules around rotation no longer apply, but you can comply with them if you wish. The Department of Agriculture has told the Irish Farmers Journal: “There was no requirement on the BISS application system for an applicant in 2025 to declare opting for Crop Diversification only under GAEC 7. The applicant was only required to declare the crop claimed for each parcel and the BISS system indicated if applicant’s GAEC 7 status was ‘compliant’ or ‘not compliant’ based on Crop Diversification requirements.

“Applicants would have had to make a manual (not on agfood.ie) request to DAFM to opt for both Crop Rotation and Crop Diversification in 2025.”

You can still comply with crop diversification requirements by planting at least 50% of your arable area in cover crops (outside of paid schemes) if you have opted for this.