IFA Grain Committee chair Liam Dunne, wishes farmers and contractors the best for the upcoming maize harvest, telling the Irish Farmers Journal that "conditions are perfect for harvest".

Kildangan, Co Kildare, contractor Michael Quigley said he is "three weeks later cutting than we were last year as a result of the cold spring. We are really lucky to be getting a dry spell. This time last year we were in the middle of cutting. Luckily there are great ground conditions. Rivers are low, ground is bone dry".

Quigley hopes to start harvesting on Wednesday. Michael does both plastic and non-covered maize. He hopes to finish up in early November as "heavy frost can do serious harm".

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In the southeast, "harvesting is well under way," according to John Foley of Maize Tech Ireland in Bunclody, Co Wexford. That is, the harvesting of the earliest maturing varieties.

Mature crops on green plants

"Farmers are very happy. Crops were just about fit for harvesting this week," Foley told the Irish Farmers Journal. "Crops are still very green; but they are mature, which is the most important thing. A mature crop on a green plant is what you want, which is being achieved. However, farmers are two weeks behind normal, like every other crop this year as average temperatures have been down."

It is not all good news in the southeast as the above relates only to plastic-covered maize. Crops out in the open, which includes 15% of the maize grown in Ireland, are very poor this year. The fear is that crops may be harvested without maturing as they can only be left in the ground for so long.

Don't miss next Wednesday's weekly podcast for an interview with a maize grower from Germany, where the crop is much more common than in Ireland.