Latest indications suggest that the yields from crops of winter barley harvested in locations as far apart as Cork in the south and Louth in the north-east have held up well.
Farmers have battled challenging weather conditions so far this year, particularly persistent wet weather.
Against this weather backdrop and also in relation to how early some crops were cut, one Waterford headquartered wholesale seed company has highlighted concerns about grain quality.
Yields
Tim O’Donovan, technical director with Seedtech, told Agriland :“To date, crops are averaging 3.5-3.75 t/ac. But there will always be tremendous variability in very early cut crops”.
“Farmers have been mainly harvesting crops of Joyau and the various hybrid barleys up to this point with some 2-rows on lighter land also cut.
“For the most part, growers will be happy with the level of performance they are achieving and the trend is that the best winter barley crops are yet to be cut.
“The crops combined over the last week or so would have been drilled between the middle of September and early October”.
He added: “In many instances, they would have had to withstand the pressure of the very poor weather that followed later in October and a shorter grain fill as June was warm.
“Invariably, very early winter barley crops are sown in locations that would not be the prime sites on most farms.”
According to O’Donovan, it’s almost unheard of for combines to be operating in Irish fields at the end of June.
He said: “We had six weeks of very hot and dry weather from the middle of May through until the end of June.
“These conditions combined to bring about a very early start to the 2023 cereal harvest.”
But he warned that while growers will be happy with the yields they are getting right now, the same might not be said for grain quality.
“The hot spell acted to shorten the grain fill period, which will have a negative impact on grain quality,” said O’Donovan.
Cereal rotation
Seedtech’s technical director has highlighted the benefit of including winter barley within a cereal rotation.
O’Donovan added: “In the first instance, the harvesting of these crops takes place at a time of year when long days are still available to farmers .
“This allows growers to operate their combines in a very efficient manner. Getting the winter barley harvest sorted out in a timely fashion then allows farmers to dedicate more time to their winter wheat and spring barley crops later in the season.”
He also acknowledged that the rain of the past couple of days has a brought a halt to most harvesting operations.
“Once the weather picks up again, the winter barley harvest will begin in earnest. At that stage we will get a real sense of how these crops have performed in 2022/23,” O Donovan confirmed.
“It will be interesting to see how spring barley crops perform over the coming weeks. Those planted out in February and early March have real potential. They may well out yield winter barley varieties this year.
“However, the prospects for spring barley crops drilled in late April and into May is not positive at all,” he warned.