In pictures: early harvest 2023 starts in June

The 2023 grain harvest has started for many farmers.

In a rare event, harvest has started in the month of June, with reports of combines moving on Wednesday 28 June and many combines moving on Thursday 29 June.

Our photographer Donal O'Leary was out to capture some of the action. He met with Tom and Cyril Roche who were harvesting Pixel winter barley on Thursday 29 June on their home farm at Castlehyde, Fermoy, Co Cork.

Pixel is an early variety. It was being delivered to McDonnell Bros and was coming in at 19% moisture content and had a KPH of 65. The crop was sown in early October.

The early start date comes about as a result of the very hot weather in May and June and, as well as this, many of the new varieties which are coming through are early ripeners.

If we look at KWS Joyau, for example, it is a barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) tolerant variety, which can be sowed earlier than other varieties, as risk of BYDV damage is lowered.

It is also early maturing, so this combined with the weather can result in an early-start for growers with this variety.

We will keep you up to date on the harvest as it progresses.

Many farmers expect to get cutting winter barley in the next week to 10 days if weather allows. Some showery weather is in the forecast.