This year’s harvest has been unusual, largely due to the effects of last year’s bad weather during the winter sowing season and into spring 2024.

The adverse conditions are now clearly affecting the harvest, causing delays.

However, having a diversity of crops helps spread out the workload during this time. That diversity is helping on Gareth Culligan’s tillage farm located outside Castlebellingham in Co Louth.

The spring barley harvest was very late as was the winter beans, while spring beans are some time away. Normally, winter barley would have been the first to be harvested, but resowing the crop this year has added pressure.

Over the last few weeks, Gareth has had to manage both harvesting and sowing simultaneously, alternating between the two tasks to get everything done.

Winter barley

There were 90 acres of winter barley sown, but he had to re-sow the field with spring barley, which incurred significant costs.

This meant the spring barley was only due to be cut over the last few days, leaving those 90 acres to be harvested during this busy time.

By now, winter rape should have been sown in this field, but the crop rotation plan had to be adjusted to accommodate the 90 acres of spring barley.

“We are all feeling the effects of last year now,” said Gareth.

Weeks behind

Gareth has harvested winter oats and rape, with only a small amount of wheat harvested before September. Over the last two weeks, he has harvested the winter beans, followed by the spring barley and spring beans are another while off.

Gareth has been about two to three weeks behind where he would normally be at this time of year.

Gareth is considering selling the winter bean straw, as there is a high demand for it this year.

This will be the first year that all the straw on the farm has been baled. Most of the straw is being used for bedding, although Gareth has previously sold winter rape straw to neighbours who use bale burners to heat their homes.

Gareth’s crops didn’t ripen well this year. While the grains matured, the straw lagged behind, largely due to the weather. Harvesting oats was particularly challenging, stretching over nearly a week as he could only work when conditions were very good which delayed other farm tasks.

Keeping patience with both the crops and the weather has been tough. Gareth had to leave straw in the field for days, waiting for it to dry and ripen before it could be baled.

Gareth notes that many farms in Louth are almost over-mechanised, but he prefers to keep things simple. He hires a contractor to bale his straw into large square bales, which are sold off the farm.

Fortunately, he has easy access to machinery from neighbours or friends and can rely on their help during busy times, which he considers a great asset.

Yields

Gareth said that all his yields are down this year. He was pleased with his oilseed rape yield of 1.45t/ac, especially since he considered resowing the field. The crop, planted as a companion crop with peas, beans, sunflowers, buckwheat, and clover, was harvested two to three weeks later than most oilseed rape.

In January, Gareth made the decision to keep the crop and go in with a herbicide and fertiliser.

The winter oats were “a disaster”, he said. Despite looking good, the yield was poor due to flooding, with some acres lost entirely. The yield barely reached 2t/ac, far below the average of 3.5t/ac.

Gareth considered resowing, but it would have been costly and delayed harvest into September, making it difficult to plant cover crops. He now has a cover crop in place in some areas of the farm.