Farm manager, Brendan Burke, has confirmed the completion of the 2024 winter barley and winter oats harvest at Teagasc Oak Park.
This work has entailed the combining of commercial and trial plots at Oak Park, plus a number of sites across the country.
As Burke explained on the current edition of the Tillage Edge podcast, this entails the transport of specialised combines and trailers from Co. Carlow to a range of locations around the country.
“The winter barley at Oak Park has turned out well enough. This, in part, could be down to the fact that we took the risk in planting crops last October at a time when many commercial growers decided not to sow.
“The weather also picked up after the barley crops were in the ground. These crops went on to survive the winter reasonably well,” Burke said.
Winter barley
According to the Oak Park farm manager, winter barleys this year averaged 3½t/ac.
“Winter barley is normally a second cereal in the rotation that we follow, starting with winter wheat, then winter barley, followed by spring barley and then a break crop such as banes or oilseed rape.
“We don’t push commercial cereals grown at Oak Park to the maximum. This is because they are grown directly adjacent to trial sites.
“If lodging were to impact the commercial crop, it could directly interfere with the results achieved from the trial plots,” he continued.
According to Burke, straw volumes coming off the winter barley locations are good.
“We are getting an average of 8: 4×4 round bales per acre. This is a lot better than last year, when straw lay on the ground for a fortnight,” he added.
Apart from approximately 5ha that have yet to ripen, the winter oat crops at Oak Park have also been harvested. But in contrast to winter barley, all of the oaten straw has been chopped.
“We took the decision from the get-go to submit the oat area for the straw incorporation measure. There is no demand for oaten straw this part of the world.
“All the land at Oak Park is very sandy. So incorporating straw is adding much needed organic matter to our soils.
“We have regular customers for the likes of barley straw. And demand for the bales that we have already produced is very strong,” Burke added.