Ground conditions are an issue in the northeast of the country for tillage farmers.

It’s been a difficult season and harvest, but it's important to look forward and Brian Reilly of Drummonds is encouraging farmers to get good foundations in for next year and start thinking about planting oilseed rape.

Speaking on this week’s Irish Farmers Journal Tillage Podcast, the agronomist, who is based in the northeast with Drummonds, said that the harvest was probably 75% complete in his area as of Wednesday morning 23 August.

There is still spring barley to be cut and some of these crops are a few days away, he explained, while the spring beans harvest is under way for many who planted crops in late February.

Straw

On straw, Brian said that the winter barley straw has been wrapped up, but there is a lot of wheaten straw which has yet to be baled.

“Ground is hard to travel,” Brian commented. He said the drier fields are being baled, but the wetter fields are being left, as machinery can’t travel or there are wet patches in fields where the straw is left.

He added that a few dry weeks are needed to dry land, allow oilseed rape to be planted, to get straw moved and to get some structure to come back to soils again.

He said that we really don’t need a situation like last year again where we are planting into wetter soils, which won’t be good for crops.

Oilseed rape

Brian noted that oilseed rape planting is slow to start, as farmers are busy harvesting, but he encouraged people to get oilseed rape crops in as soon as possible. He said growers are planting their better ground first.

Brian commented that tillage income was good last year and this year been a tough year and this is all the more reason to plant break crops and to try to improve the yield from your crops.

“Put the foundations in for next year to get back to square one. Oilseed rape is a very important crop to get in early and get it established.

“Get the straw cleared, get the break crops in. Get first wheats back in the ground,” he added.

You can hear the full chat with Brian and hear all the latest from the northeast by clicking here.