Weather not helping harvest

17 August 2001



Weather not helping harvest

GERALD ERWIN, farmer and contractor near Antrim, has had a slow start to harvest. He has combined a small amount of winter barley, although he says there is not a large area of winter barley being grown.

He has combined 6ha (15 acres) of a mix of Regina and Angela. “It has done 3t/acre (7.4t/ha), which is slightly above average. Im quite happy with it.”

It was combined at 20% moisture. “Autumn drilling conditions have meant the area of winter barley on Northern Ireland are less than normal. We only have 25 acres (10ha).”

He has started combining spring barley for crimping, although rain has interrupted this. He says the conventional spring barley crop will be fit in 10 days. “It is coming very quickly, so we will soon not be able to cut it for crimping.”

To post your Harvest Highlights, click here