Farmers still have about 25% of their spring barley to cut in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, but a few dry days would see them finish up.

Philip Davidson at North Down Grain said overall harvest was 90% complete.

“In the North East here we haven’t had the heavy rainfall that other places have got, so we were on cutting yesterday (8 September).

“If we have a couple of good days most of the county will have finished.”

Yields had been fairly good, with spring barley averaging about 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre), with decent quality grain and straw, he said.

Wheat had also done well, at 8.6-10t/ha (3.5-4t/acre), although not a lot of wheat was grown in the area.

“Winter barleys did pretty well – they were on course to be very good but the hot, dry June killed some of them off.” Generally, crops averaged about 8t/ha (3.25t/acre).

“There is a lot of ploughing done in the area now, and once the final spring barley has been cut we’ll be into drilling the winter crops – we’re about on target.”

Crop: Spring barley
Yield: 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre)

Crop: Winter wheat
Yield: 8.6-10t/ha (3.5-4t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Yield: 8t/ha (3.25t/acre)