Presumably it’s a sign of the times, but the bulk of barley straw is not only baled, as I mentioned last week, but is gone to its end user – a dairy farmer in the midlands. I had expected it to be baled in round 4x4s, which are much more saleable than the 8x4x4s, but given the speed of baling and transporting the big bales over a distance, and his desire to have his straw needs met quickly and efficiently, I could see where he was coming from.

There is a small field in round 4x4s and most of them are still there. Following the removal of the main crop, we will spread cattle slurry from the slats and, in line with regulations, incorporate it into the soil immediately.

After that we will assess whether it needs another pass of a disc and crumbler bars, in advance of hopefully getting the oilseed rape for the 2025 harvest in the ground by the 25th of August or before. We have learned a bitter lesson this year when the crops of oilseed rape went in too late and got much too much rain for the young plants to deal with.

In the meantime, we want to get a wet patch in the field drained and various ruts levelled. While August may be the holiday month for the bulk of the population, for us it is one of the busiest and important months of the year. This year with the comparatively late winter barley harvest, everything is getting compressed with this year’s oilseed rape pretty well ready for cutting, the winter wheat coming in rapidly and the second-cut silage also ready within the next few days.

All of this activity depends on reasonable weather, but ultimately, you can only take it as it comes. For the straw chopping scheme, we had only applied for the oats and oilseed rape.

Despite some interest from potential customers, I suspect we will end up chopping both of the crops now that the conditions for getting the baling subsidy are known.

So far I haven’t tried the high-tech method needed to apply for the new baling scheme, but I am sure somebody in the family will be able to figure it out, especially with the helpful note I got from our local Teagasc office.