Irish 2008 Winter Wheat Plantings Likely Sharply Lower
Cast your mind back to the "summer" it seemed that every single weather forecast every night on the BBC featured the line "before another swathe of wet weather rolls in from Ireland."
And again recently I've noticed that there is a regular patch of rain usually obliterating the entire country & the NW of Scotland the last few weeks.
It may not come as any great surprise therefore to hear that a leading tillage expert has warned that, due to weather conditions, it is now expected that the acreage sown to winter wheat will be at least reduced by a quarter, if not halved, this year.
Teagasc expert Jim O'Mahony has also warned that merchants could be left with a surplus of winter seed that had been imported at a high cost.
"The priority now should be to get the winter barley sown under good soil conditions, otherwise it will not establish properly," Mr O'Mahony said.
"After that, they need to get the winter wheat and oats in. We would encourage growers to put crops in between now and the end of the first week of November. After that, it gets too problematic," said Mr O'Mahony.
And again recently I've noticed that there is a regular patch of rain usually obliterating the entire country & the NW of Scotland the last few weeks.
It may not come as any great surprise therefore to hear that a leading tillage expert has warned that, due to weather conditions, it is now expected that the acreage sown to winter wheat will be at least reduced by a quarter, if not halved, this year.
Teagasc expert Jim O'Mahony has also warned that merchants could be left with a surplus of winter seed that had been imported at a high cost.
"The priority now should be to get the winter barley sown under good soil conditions, otherwise it will not establish properly," Mr O'Mahony said.
"After that, they need to get the winter wheat and oats in. We would encourage growers to put crops in between now and the end of the first week of November. After that, it gets too problematic," said Mr O'Mahony.