Teagasc tillage specialists are reporting a north-south split in terms of autumn planting of cereal crops in recent weeks.
Surprisingly, it is growers in the north and north-west who have missed the worst of the wet weather and benefited accordingly.
“From what we can gather, farmers in the midlands, north-east and Donegal managed to get most of their planned winter barley crops drilled,” Teagasc’s Shay Phelan has confirmed.
“And it was pretty much the same for growers in the midlands. However, it’s a different story altogether in the south of the country.”
Phelan was a contributor to the latest episode of the Tillage Edge podcast.
Meanwhile, many farmers are reporting that 2023 rainfall levels have already breached their annual average figure. And there are still two months to go before the end of the year.
Similarly, Met Éireann stations are confirming above average rainfall levels for the autumn to date, especially in southern counties.
Weather impact on autumn planting
The incessant rain has had a significant impact on crop planting levels with almost all autumn planting growers well behind where they would like to be.
The question fast arising for cereal growers now is this – do they persevere with winter planting or do they call a halt and wait for the spring of 2024?
Teagasc tillage specialist, Ciaran Collins, also participated in the podcast.
He was caught-up in the recent floods down in Cork, confirming the significant impact they had on a number of farming businesses.
“There was a significant degree of flooding in some fields,” the Teagasc representative explained.
“There was also a bit of sowing done [before] the heavy rain. But in terms of overall field work very little has been done in the Cork area up to this point.
“It’s hard to put an actual figure on this. But on the back of just talking to farmers, the winter barley area is below 50% of what growers had actually planned to achieve. And in some cases the figure is much lower than this.
Where winter wheat is concerned, the figures are also very small according to Teagasc. There was a small acreage planted out in east Cork.
Shay Phelan indicated that farmers with reduced cultivation systems found it difficult to get going in the midlands and north-east of the country.
“But those farmers who committed to ploughing seemed to get through the ground reasonably well and succeeded in getting crops into the ground,” he stated.