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Weeks of wet weather have staggered harvest progress around the country and is leading to crop yield and quality concerns in certain areas.
Growers are reporting that different crops have suffered substantial lodging over the past 10 days, with areas in Meath and Tipperary particularly badly hit.
Lodged areas of spring barley and winter wheat have begun to sprout. There has also been a small amount of sprouting reported in standing wheat crops, and growers fear that continued wet and warm weather could increase this risk.
Straw breakdown is an issue in winter oats and the remaining few pockets of winter barley.
There have been few opportunities for baling straw this month, leading to delays in planting cover crops.
Growers have been seizing every opportunity to harvest ripe crops, often at high moisture content (mc). Grain moistures as high as 26% in wheat and barley have been reported. More growers are now opting to chop straw due to the difficult weather.
Initial winter wheat yields look promising, with up to 5t/ac at 22% mc reported. Early reports of spring malting barley are good, with 3.5t/ac at 17-22% mc and proteins of below 9% common.
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