Many farmers who had been grappling with the last of their spring cereal crops have managed to complete harvesting in recent days.

While there are still some crops to cut, the majority is now in store.

Yields held up for May-sown spring barley crops with many at 2t/ac and over with moisture contents below 20%.

Straw was also saved in good conditions.

There are still plenty of spring beans to be cut, and farmers are now down to the April-sown crops.

Yields are coming in at around the 2t/ac mark, but many are below this. Moisture contents look to be at or below 20% in most cases.

As the harvest draws to a close grain prices are dropping. On Tuesday evening Matif wheat for December closed at €232/t, the lowest price since the start of June.

The US Department of Agriculture’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report came out on Tuesday stating that world wheat supplies were down.

However, large maize supplies are likely to prevent big jumps in wheat price.

Meanwhile, Irish harvest prices have yet to be settled for the majority.

Merchants across the country are paying out but, in general, they are paying a certain amount and will pay the difference when the final price is settled in the coming weeks.

At the Teagasc Crops Forum on Friday, Teagasc released its crop costs and returns figures for 2024.

Input costs are estimated to be down by about 20% across cereal and oilseed rape crops.

This is mainly due to a decrease in fertiliser prices. However, grain prices are the big unknown in those figures.

The Matif wheat price for December 2024 currently stands at €242.25/t.