The weather since drilling last autumn drilling has been ideal for cereal production here. Yields on farm reflect this and we are on course for our best ever average. Quench spring barley gave 8.73t/ha at 16% moisture and winter barley, the majority being Volume, yielded 9.1t/ha at 16% moisture.
Our first wheat field, Alchemy, recorded 12.5t/ha, again remarkably averaging 16% moisture. We rarely see such dry grain coming off the combine. I'm sure the June sunshine played its part.
Cries of bankruptcy are already coming from the feeders with the strong market continuing. When UK grain is £100/t, feeders in Northern Ireland pay £115 (+15%) and when grain is £160/t elsewhere they pay £175 (+9%). Therefore, each £10/t rise makes our intensive sector more competitive against those who export grain. Happy days? Not so, say my fellow farmers. Come on lads and be thankful that at least some of what you feed is being grown locally.
News has just come through that Northern Ireland is to burn its broiler litter to produce "energy", which is currently driving the crop yields on our farm. The EU has everyone in government running scared of phosphates. The P&K residue in burnt broiler litter will be going to landfill, as meat and bone meal is to be incorporated in the mix. Common sense says cut back further on the imported chemical phosphate and use cheaper natural organic material. But alas, common sense and visionary thinking have left the corridors of power.
Mistake of the month: Spraying wheat three weeks ago with glyphosate, after a cowboy lunch on a steepish section of field when a sudden loud blast of escaping air stopped me in my tracks. No, it wasn't me, but the rim had fallen off the tubeless rear tyre. I had been running too low on pressure. Luckily, no damage done.