The harvest was very fast this year, all wrapped in five weeks from start to finish.

It was a remarkably quick timeframe, with week after week of good weather – although this may finally change with the arrival of some Atlantic storms.

We do still have some spring beans to harvest, but they will be done in early September, unlike last year where delayed planting meant harvest was in danger of clashing with Christmas dinner.

See also: Farmer aims to cut wheat inputs with home-brewed inoculant

About the author

Peadar Whyte

Peadar Whyte farms 1,600ha of arable land across County Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Louth in north-east Ireland, as part of a multi-generational family farm, Whyte Brothers. The farm was established by Peader’s grandfather, Peter Whyte, and later expanded in partnership with Peter’s seven sons – including Peadar’s father, Eddie – and seven of their sons (Peadar’s cousins). Peadar grows wheat, barley, oats, oilseed rape, beans, potatoes and a variety of forage and cover crops. The wider farm operation also finishes 500 beef cattle annually.

Read more articles by Peadar Whyte

We have planted our oilseed rape and it has all established without any issues. Slugs usually give me nightmares until the OSR gets its true leaves and becomes a bit more resilient. 

However, it got going well due to the warm soil temperatures and a couple of well-timed rains. I expect we will have a good chance to develop a nice canopy before winter.

Potato harvest has also started. We grow maincrop potatoes for table use.

Skin finish is the most important thing for our market, and I am pleased with our quality, although we probably need a bit of hardship harvesting them if we want prices to be any good.

Winter wheat turned out well; crops were not bad at all. There were really good stands of wheat in every field, and although dry weather did ripen crops early it was rain that did more harm.

We had a wet week during flowering and it did have an effect on yield. That said, crops were generally good. The problem is, prices are not.

Arable farmers are really feeling the pinch financially, and never before has the mood been so low after a good harvest. This is due in part to the dynamics of Irish agriculture.

We have a thriving export market for dairy and beef products, which are some of the best in the world, but it means we need a lot of feed.

We have relatively few crops grown here, so Ireland imports millions of tonnes of grain.

Most of the grain we grow on our farm goes into the feed market. You would think this is good, as we have a ready market for our grain.

The problem is that everyone likes to pretend we don’t exist. The story Irish agriculture marketing likes to tell is the simple one: animals eating grass.

It’s clever, because it completely ignores the other part of their diet. By leaving that out, buyers can quietly import the cheapest feed available while pretending it isn’t part of the system.

Once you admit animals also eat concentrates, you have to ask where that feed comes from.

Talk about quality Irish grain and you’d have to talk about the other stuff too – the harmful, environmentally destructive, genetically modified feed imports that prop up the system in staggering amounts.

We need honesty about what’s really in the feed trough, and recognition that Irish grain, produced to far higher quality and environmental standards, cannot be lumped in with cheap, inferior imports.

Without that, Irish tillage is in trouble.