We have never had such an easy haymaking week.

We cut the meadows last Saturday week, after being turned twice in the dry 25C plus temperatures, the grass was fit to put into rows and bale.

We got everything done by Friday. Not a drop of rain, just three portions of fields with neat 4x4s at about 10 well-packed bales per acre.

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If this weather lasts much longer, they may well be needed before the winter but we can only take it as it comes.

With the hay safely made, we can now concentrate on the harvest.

With a lot of the winter barley in the area cut, the temptation was to start over the weekend but while the grain was hard at I reckon at about 18%-20%, we took a view that given the forecast, we should try and let the straw ripen a bit more to make for easier thrashing.

The temptation would be to use Round-up for the new green growth in the tramlines but we are forbidden under our contract to use any Round-up on the winter barley we have undertaken to supply, so we will try and strike the best balance we can.

In the event, the combine came over on Monday afternoon and we went straight into the first of the winter barleys.

It will take a few days but we have got off to a good start with a nice sample of grain and good dry straw which is being baled into 8x4x4s by our customer.

While this is an early barley harvest, it is not exceptionally so when compared with recent years, but there is no doubt that harvests are getting earlier.

We used some years ago expect to begin the winter barley around Galway race week or the Dublin Horse Show but this year we could well have the wheat done by the time they come round.

The wheat is ripening rapidly and the oilseed rape may well need less than the normal four weeks after dessication before it too is ready.

The crop least suited to these hot dry conditions is the beans.

The damp cool summer that leads to an optimum yield of beans is not a feature this year but they are, as far as we can judge, free of disease, especially the damaging chocolate spot.

On the cattle side, grass growth has effectively stopped – regrowth after grazing is almost nil.

We have taken a view that with beef prices having strengthened, it would make sense to begin supplementation especially for the Angus crosses over 500 kgs.

It all adds to the cost but with our second cut silage going to be smaller than normal because of our late first cut and restricted growth at the moment, it is turning out to be a tricky grass / cattle management year.