The management team at Oak Park, Co. Carlow are experiencing the same challenges as other tillage farmers in the area this year, as the weather has impacted significantly on crop yields.
The cultivated area at Oak Park comprises a mix of trial and commercial crops.
Speaking on the latest Tillage Edge podcast Oak Park farm manager, Brendan Burke, said the 2023 growing season threw up many challenges.
“The 2023 harvest was not overly delayed, primarily because we have a pretty good spread of crops,” he explained.
“That said, it was pretty much a ‘lift and go’ operation as the chances presented themselves.
“The final harvest of spring barley and spring oats was not that nice given the presence of second and third tillers coming through that were very green.
“We didn’t spray with glyphosate. So it was a case of taking the hit with those later sown crops.”
Challenges at Oak Park
A wide range of dry matters within a single field did provide some challenges for the Oak Park team.
“It was then a case of mixing and matching loads to get a representative dry matter sample,” Burke continued.
“With some spring barleys that were sown out in good conditions, we had the challenge of heads dropping off in a number of cases. But we managed to get through it all in the end.
“Green tillers added significantly to the moisture of some crops. And they did little from a yield perspective as well. We looked at the option of taking some crops off as silage, but in the end decided against it.”
Approximately 20ha of spring beans were grown at Oak Park in 2023. This included a number of trial plots.
Some of these were planted late in the season, specifically for trials-related reasons. The same principle held where a small area of lupins was concerned.
“In both instances, it was a case of waiting for the right day and harvesting the crops as quickly as possible,” Burke said.
“But in some cases the pods had already started to shatter and pods were lying on the ground.”
Burke confirmed that, overall, spring barley crops grown at Oak Park did not perform well this year.
“A number of fields did not hit 2t/ac. Rye, in contrast, yielded very well across a whole block that was in trials,” he explained.
“Wheat and oilseed rape yields were okay. But, certainly, rye was the crop that stood out in 2023.”