With many spring barley crops ready for cutting and this year’s winter wheat harvest set to kick off in a few days’ time, all Irish tillage growers have their eyes fixed firmly on the skies above.
“The weather is the key factor coming into play now,” admitted Teagasc’s head of crops knowledge transfer department, Michael Hennessy.
He said: “Growers need a window of dry weather to get on with the harvest within the next week to 10 days.
“If this doesn’t materialise, the huge potential that is currently in the field, courtesy of this year’s spring barley and other crops, will not be realised.”
Cereal crop harvest
Hennessy went on to confirm that a number of early spring barley crops have been harvested.
“In many cases yields have exceed 3.5t/ac with moisture contents in the range [of] 17% to 18%. Some growers have reported yields coming in at 4t/ac, but these would be exceptional cases,” he said.
“The good news for farmers is that these crops are now in store at a time when prices are encouragingly strong.”
Where winter oats are concerned, the Teagasc tillage specialist said that the recent heavy rains had led to a small degree of ear shedding.
“The wet weather has served to increase moisture contents in grain crops across the board. Lodging has not been that big of an issue; although there is some evidence of crops being flattened in some parts of the country.
“But brackling is becoming an issue in crops of spring barley crops which are now ripe or overripe,” he added.
Brackling is the kinking or buckling of the stem at or around the nodal area. It occurs as the straw is drying out, especially in the last five days before the crop ripens and is ready to harvest, resulting in issues with combining and yield losses.
This can lead to direct yield losses and problems associated with the physical combining of crops.
Hennessy further explained: “If conditions continue to dampen further, germination within the ear can become an issue within crops where brackling has taken effect.”
Oilseed rape
“Where winter oilseed rape is concerned, it has been a stop-start harvest up to this point. Yields have been acceptable enough. But the real story here has been the availability of rape crops that display pod shatter resistance,” Hennessy added.
“They have really come into their own in 2021.”
Looking ahead, Hennessy confirmed that everything now hinges on the weather over the next fortnight.
“Growers need a consistent spell of dry weather to get on with the harvest. If this doesn’t materialise within the next few days, then alarm bells will start to ring.
“Unfortunately, there is no settled spell of weather on the horizon at the moment,” he concluded.