Harvest: The winter barley harvest has started on some farms. Varieties that are tolerant to barley yellow dwarf virus tend to ripen earlier than other varieties.

Some growers also plant them earlier, and these are generally the varieties being cut at present. Many crops are still a bit away from harvest and it looks like a large amount of crops won’t be ready until the end of next week or after it, but of course the weather will impact this.

At present, temperatures don’t look to be too high, but there is sunshine which could be ideal for crops.

Last week we wrote about the new regulations requiring trailer numbers for farmers delivering to a co-op or merchant. It needs to be your Irish Grain Assurance Scheme (IGAS) number and the trailer number on your farm.

For example, 1234-1, 1234-2. Some of you have been enquiring about your IGAS number. Your number is on the IGAS text messages that have come out in recent days. The example in the message changed to every grower’s number.

Glyphosate: The label on glyphosate was changed when it was re-registered, so remember you cannot use glyphosate to desiccate a cereal or oilseed rape crop.

You can only use glyphosate pre-harvest where you have a weed problem. It cannot be used on grain destined for the human food chain. Glyphosate has not been allowed to be used on grain for food or drinks in Ireland for a number of years.

Teagasc says that you can only apply glyphosate to control weeds when the crop is at the hard dough stage and you can only leave a thumbnail mark on the grain. The moisture content of the grain should be less than 30%. It should only be used if absolutely necessary.

Blackgrass: Glyphosate at harvest is not a solution for blackgrass or Italian ryegrass. These weeds will most likely be gone to seed by this time. They should be pulled from the crop if they have gone to seed. If they are gone to seed they can also be sent to Teagasc for herbicide resistance testing. If you have a very bad infestation of these weeds in crops then you should really consider whole cropping before the weeds go to seed.

You then need to delay drilling and move to a spring crop if possible. You should also plough down the seed at planting.

Labels and plastic: Ensure you have taken labels from seed bags before sending them to the plastic recycling collections.

You need to keep labels from the different varieties and batch numbers. If you have different lots or batch numbers then ensure you keep a label from each of them and also keep the seed dressing label.

This is important for your grain records and also if anything happens with the seed.

Pesticide cans need to be triple rinsed before going to recycling. Keep an eye out for plastic collections in your locality and make sure to keep the receipt for your records.