With well over half the winter barley now harvested in most of the country, yields can be described as “higher than expected a few months ago”.

There are certainly some disappointing results, but yields at and above 4t/ac are reported from all areas. Grain quality is good also.

While there are a number of crops with yields under 3.5t/ac there also appear to be quite a number with yields above 4t/ac and, based on reports, one might expect the national crop to average over 4t/ac this year.

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But in a year when yields are generally good, harvest reporting tends to become inflated and calculated averages are often lower than the indicative level.

Over half the winter barley is now harvested in all major regions, with more than 75% in some areas. In general, yield levels range from about 3.7t/ac to about 4.5 t/ac. There are certainly yields above and below this range.

The six-row hybrids are generally doing better but this seems to vary between 0.2t/ac in some areas to almost 0.75t/ac in others. But while all quality is good, some merchants report that the two-row types are three to four KPH higher than the hybrids.

The quality of the crop is very good and, in general, most specific weights on the low side of average are a result of poor threshing, so will improve post-drying. The main co-ops report an average at intake of around 64 to 66 KPH at an average of 19% moisture.

Grain prices remain under pressure, with harvest prices weaker than last week once again. And this despite a bit of a rally early this week on the back of concerns about maize yields being affected by wet weather in some regions and heat and dryness in others.

November prices this week are either side of €180/t for dry wheat and €165/t for dry barley. And with drying costs and weight loss equating to around €30/t, these make for very unpalatable green price levels. That said, merchants in parts of the country are currently offering between €138/t and €142/t for 20% winter barley.

Harvesting of winter oats and oilseed rape is also under way. Reports on oat crops indicate the majority of yields to date in the 4t/ac bracket but there has been an occasional very low yield due to virus infection. Oat quality so far seems to be in the 52-54 KPH bracket but may well end up lower than last year.