During the Galway Armagh match on Sunday, my two winter barley customers were turning the straw in separate fields in preparation to bale on the dry day forecast for Monday.

They might as well have stayed at home and watched the match as instead of the dry morning forecast, it rained quite heavily so the baling had to be postponed.

The quality of the straw doesn’t seem to have suffered and on Tuesday and Wednesday, they were able to bale it without having to turn it again or row it. So that’s the end of the 2024 winter barley season.

Disappointing

How did the two crops do? Disappointing sums it up. Both crops did less than 3t/acre. It’s a long time since we had that kind of yield. Straw yield was around average with an early count of about eight round 4x4 bales/acre.

One crop had large areas submerged for too long during the prolonged wet autumn and winter despite the field normally being dry, while the other crop, though sown earlier, was more variable but the bulk of it met the specifications set by our customer and we at least supplied more than the amount we had forward sold.

I am never quite sure with winter barley in our rotation – it is inevitably a second crop after wheat, the most vulnerable place possible for take all. With mild winters, it is also prone to barley yellow dwarf virus in a way that wasn’t the case when we had either hard frosts or an effective seed dressing.

At the same time, it’s the only realistic lead into oilseed rape which is an essential cog in our rotation. Next week it will be three weeks since we applied Roundup to the oilseed rape so the focus will shift to gauging when is the best time to cut to give as near as possible the 9% target moisture.

As we come into the back end of the year, we are dosing the yearling cattle for any worm burden that has developed over the summer to try and maximise performance on the autumn grass before housing in the November period.

In line with advice, we are leaving higher residuals after each paddock is grazed.

The weight performance over the grazing season will give the final answer.