Tillage: Harvest 2025 continues apace despite recent rains
Harvest 2025 is about to get underway again after the heavy rains of recent days brought all field work to a halt in parts of the south and east of the country.
High pressure is due to build over the coming days, according to Met Éireann, and with it the return of drier conditions.
Teagasc tillage specialist, Shay Phelan said: "For growers, it’s a case of getting on with the winter oat harvest, followed by the combining of winter oilseed rape.
“Some rape crops have been cut in the Carlow area. But it’s too early to talk about actual yield figures.
“The recent rains has softened the ground but not by enough to halt harvesting operations in any meaningful way.
Meanwhile, growers across the country are reporting that al crops are continuing to mature at very accelerated rates.
One downside to this is the corresponding drop in yield potential as a direct result of the short growing season that will ensue.
Some tillage farmers in the south-east are indicating that very early sown crops of spring barley will be ready for the combine before the end of this month.
Meanwhile, the past week has seen two blight warnings issued by Met Éireann.
Phelan said: “One downside to the recent heavy rain has been the softening of ground conditions within potato crops.
"This would have made it slightly more difficult for growers to maintain the timing of of their blight spraying programmes."
On the other hand, one upside of this week’s rain has been the easing of soil moisture deficits, which has served to boost yield potentials within all potato crops.
But the key issue confronting potato growers at the present time is the state of the market.
Significant tonnages of product have been brought into the country over recent weeks, primarily for processing purposes - chipping and peeled potatoes destined for the catering sector.
These imports are serving to weaken the overall tone of the Irish market
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has called on all retail outlets and processing businesses to use home-grown potatoes only.
It is claimed there are now sufficient quantities of Irish grown potatoes available to meet local demand in full.
Where early varieties of potatoes are concerned, eating quality has been deemed to be excellent.
The digging of second early varieties is about to start, with the main crop harvest due to get underway at the end of August.
