Harvest

Some farmers made good progress harvesting winter wheat at the weekend. Moistures were high and crops were not fully fit at the end of last week, but by Saturday many were down at 20% moisture, and even 17% by Sunday after some sunshine.

Oilseed rape also continues to be cut, while winter oats look to be wrapping up.

Straw Incorporation Measure

There are reports of inspections being carried out for the Straw Incorporation Measure. Straw needs to be chopped and incorporated as soon as possible under the measure. You need to take geo-tagged photos of the fields in the scheme.

It is a good idea to take them of chopping or the chopped straw and of incorporation. Use the Department’s AgriSnap app or set the camera on your smart phone to save the location of the picture. It’s a good idea to have a landmark in the picture as well. You also need geo-tagged pictures of baling to qualify for the Baling Assistance Payment. Some farmers were querying about the State aid limit. It looks like this will not be an issue.

Lime

This time of the year is a good time to apply lime to fields which have a pH under 6.5. Check through your soil samples and see if and where lime is needed. If crops are cut and there is a break until the next crop to be harvested or planted, it might be an opportunity to get lime spread. For other fields, plan to get lime spread before planting if possible.

Oilseed rape

There are plenty of winter crops cut now and small bits of spring barley and there is a short break until many spring cereals will be cut. This may provide an opportunity to get oilseed rape planted in good conditions in the next few days. You can plant oilseed rape up to 10 September or shortly after it, but ground conditions are good at the minute and some fields coming out of winter crops could do with a good tap root to break compaction.

GAEC 7

As you start to plant crops for the coming season, you should plan for crop diversification requirements. You do not need to implement a crop rotation based on GAEC 7 rules from the 2025 season as long as you are complying with crop diversification.

If you have 10-30ha of arable crops then you need to grow two crops, the biggest of which should not take up more than 75% of the total arable area. If you have more than 30ha then you should grow at least three crops.

The biggest crop area should not be more than 75% of the total arable area and the two main crops should not take up more than 95% of the total arable area. The smallest crop area should not be less than 5%.

If you want to grow the same crop across your land, like spring barley for example, then you need to plant 50% of your arable area in catch crops after the crop is harvested.

These crops need to be sown by 15 September and in place until 1 December. However, crop diversification rules do not apply in 2024, but will in 2025.