I was relieved when we finished the last of the wheat earlier this week. We sowed the commercial wheat immediately after we finished the barley.

It followed in the field we had taken oats from for this year’s harvest. So, with the oats acting as a break crop, the hope is always that you get a bounce in yields.

We had grubbed the fields well and sowing conditions were excellent, so we followed the plough with the one pass system.

The forecast was for difficult weather and I considered it optimistic on the part of the firm I produce seed for when the seed wheat arrived in the yard, but in fact we never got the deluge that affected Cork.

We had the beans ground earmarked for the seed wheat and after cleaning out the sower, we moved straight on with a continuation of the good conditions.

Low weights

One of the features of this year’s seed seems to be comparatively low thousand grain weights for wheat - both varieties were in the high forties while the seed barley was in the mid to high fifties.

I am never quite sure of the relationship between bushel weight and thousand weight.

It now seems that seeding rate recommendations are set much more on 1,000 grain weight than they are on stones/ac so we have gone with a low seeding rate in weight per acre terms with the wheat and quite a high one, over 12st/ac for the winter barley.

The only winter crop left to be sown is the gluten free oats. The seed has arrived and even though the recommendation is to delay sowing until at least 15 October, now that we have passed that date we will grab the first opportunity we get.

On the cattle side, there seems to have been a resurgence of growth with the mild moist weather – especially on land where we put out some late slurry to fully empty a tank.

We have housed no more cattle as they mop up the remaining grass. But the silage pit is well open and, we are supplementing this year’s moist material with hay added in the feeder.

Given the cost of concentrates, we will keep their use to a minimum, but some will be essential to get a proper finish. We are waiting for the results of our silage test to guide us on how much barley to budget on.