Alistair Craig, Limavady, Co Derry
The last 10 days have been dominated by rain in Derry, with 30mm on Sunday. This meant that the ripe winter wheat has not been cut yet.
The winter barley is finished, at an average yield of 3.25t/ac. While 20ac of the C1 KWS Tardis yielded 4t/ac, another 10ac only yielded 2t/ac. Similarly, the 10-way mix averaged 3t/ac, but with large variations. The 10-way mix was planted on poor ground, so Alistair is happy enough. The straw has been baled and averaged 6.6 square bales/ac, with each bale weighing 350kg.
The winter oilseed rape has been harvested. It averaged 1.65t/ac, ranging from 2t/ac to 0.5t/ac. The crop was not sprayed off before harvest, so Alistair was happy enough to cut it at 12% moisture. The straw will be baled when dry.
The spring beans have a lot of pods, which Alistair is putting down to the wider spacings on his drill, allowing more light into the crop. The pods are still filling and it will not be whole-cropped for a while.
The maize has a huge biomass, with the sunflower companion crop now 7ft tall. Alistair says that you can’t walk through the crop, so he is unsure how the harvester will cope. He says that while there may not be a huge yield, it is a great break crop, with lots of roots breaking up the ground.
Alistair planted his winter oilseed rape on 18 August. This year, he planted the rape, buckwheat, sunflowers and vetch together, while spring beans were planted behind sub-soiler legs, at a depth of three inches.
He replaced clover with beans, as he wants to use Astrokerb, as Kerb did not seem to be killing all the broadleaved weeds.
Farmyard manure was applied before grubbing and then planting. Alistair did not roll the crop as the rain arrived, but he thinks the large amounts of rain should ensure good germination.
Tony Bell, Balbriggan, Co Dublin
The harvest has not started for Tony, with only some contracting work completed so far. The spring wheat will be harvested first, in about two weeks’ time. The crop looks promising, with big, plump grains in the heads.
The spring beans will be next and are three weeks from harvest. Tony says the crop looks well, with nice big beans and lots of pods. Tony expects the crop to yield between 2.1 and 2.4t/ac, which he would be happy with, considering his low costs and no fertilisers or fungicides.
The maize looks healthy and green. The earlier crops have tasselled and pollinated, but the later-planted fields are only pollinating now. Tony says the harvest will be late if there’s poor September weather, but he is expecting good yields and is not afraid of a late harvest, as the ground is rock solid and his coastal area does not receive much frost. He says the maize looks like a billiards table in every field due to its uniformity. He is satisfied that his low-cost approach is working, and while there is a yield penalty due to no plastic and less inputs, he has less skin in the game and his risks were minimised.
Tony believes that every crop must stand on its own two feet every year. With some poor yields this year, farmers must question the rational behind each crop and look at the costs of production. Tony says the costs are too high in Ireland to compete against low cost, low regulation, imported products with no traceability. This means it will always be a struggle to make money without considering the poor weather and the huge increases in input and machinery prices.
Unless regulations are relaxed, or fair prices are paid, Tony says the only way to compete is to reduce costs, whether this is by only paying cheaper rents for high-quality land, or planting cheaper spring crops. He says that the last two years have taken a lot of confidence out of the sector.
Pa Shine, Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary
While there have been lots of showers in Tipperary, Pa managed to keep cutting on Sunday and Monday this week. He started into spring malting barley last week and still has a lot of it to cut. He is happy with the crop so far, and while the protein was too low in a couple of the earlier-sown fields, it is around 9% in most fields. The hectolitre weight is very good, at a KPH of 66 to 67. The earlier crops yielded 3t/ac, with the April-sown crops at 3.3t/ac. Pa says there is a huge swarth of straw behind the combine, and despite the straw getting wet, the strong winds dried it very well and Pa baled some on Sunday. There were 12 round bales/ac, a huge number of bales for late-sown spring barley.
Pa has cut some spring oats, averaging 3t/ac. The crop is struggling with the bushel weight, which is coming in at between 47 and 50KPH. Pa says it may be a bit low because some of these oats were cut at night. He is interested now to see how the last 30ac of oats that were sown later will perform.
Pa finished up the winter wheat a couple of weeks ago. It averaged 4.3t/ac at between 17% and 18% moisture content.
Pa notes that the wheat after oats was just a shade ahead of the wheat following oilseed rape. He thinks this might be due to slug damage in the wheat following the oilseed rape.
All the wheaten straw was chopped. Pa used a ripper on the tramlines before incorporating the straw with a disc harrow. He says he will disc this ground once again this week to try to kill some of the slugs and slug eggs.
Pa will not have any winter oilseed rape next year as he has no land suitable for it, but there are some cover crops still to go in for ACRES.
