Teagasc is confirming that the past 12 months have constituted an almost perfect year for tillage crops in every sense.
The harvest in 2021 went smoothly, which was followed by an excellent period in the autumn to get crops established.
The spring of 2022 was also excellent from the point of view of planting crops. And the growing season has been excellent so far.
Despite the high cost of inputs, crops appear to be green, very healthy and showing exceptional promise.
Crops harvest
So are we looking at the prospect of a bumper harvest over the coming weeks?
That was the question posed by Teagasc’s head of crops knowledge transfer department, Michael Hennessy, on a recent edition of the Tillage Edge podcast.
He raised this issue with Shay Phelan and Ciaran Collins, both Teagasc tillage specialists.
According to Collins, the earliest winter barley could be ready for the combine in less than a fortnight.
He added: “Of all the crops this year, the ones that might be described as having a mixed profile would be those of winter barley.
“Yes, there are some excellent crops of barley out there. But equally there are some that took a hit form Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus. It remains to be seen, some of the consequences of that.
“Secondly, the head count might be a little bit slacker than you would like in other barley crops. So it is a little bit of a mixed bag with winter barley really.”
Disease
On the up side, barley remained relatively clean, from a disease point of view, in 2022.
“We did have some pockets of disease. But, for the most part, spray programmes were well timed,” Ciaran Collins explained.
“All crops were impacted by some ramularia over recent weeks. But I don’t think the disease will have a major impact on final crop outcomes.
“Winter barley crops are senescing now, so it’s a bit of a race to the finishing line.”
Overall, Collins described the prospects for winter barley in 2022 as being in the average – to above average category.
“But the combine will tell the final story,” he stated.
It is hard not to get away from Ciaran Collins’ perspective on the impact of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus.
Teagasc survey data confirmed that aphids were active at critical times in the development of both winter and spring barley crops over the past 12 months. Surely, this is an issue that cereal growers will have to take full account of as they plan for the future.