If Lidl did straw they’d even be struggling to match today’s low prices. To be honest, I’m a bit fed up with straw. A few months ago, I had all sorts of highfalutin ideas that I was going to make a fortune out of straw this year. In a fit of madness, I even bought a baler, a Fendt (need you ask) which has a serious grease addiction problem that will have to be sorted.

I’m weary from twisting and turning huge 25ft swaths of straw from hybrid winter barley, which was about 6ft tall.

Then a shower appears from nowhere and it’s back to square one.

I was never any good at saving straw or hay and I can’t explain to you why I ever thought this was going to be a good idea. I was never going to make worthwhile money out of straw as I never have – with the exception of last year.

The chopper has already been engaged for the oaten straw and there is an awful lot to be said for chopping and especially at today’s prices. Wheat is next.

Blackgrass

But I had another reason for buying a baler. I’m seriously concerned that the very troublesome and herbicide-resistant grassweed, blackgrass, will be brought on to the farm by a baling contractor’s baler.

I’ve spoken with my man who square bales the wheaten straw and he assures me he can come with a clean, blown-down baler but, in truth, this will be difficult to achieve and probably – even with the best of intentions – not enough to eliminate the risk.

While few are admitting to it, there’s loads of blackgrass around.

Some may not recognise it while others would rather admit to having leprosy.

If a field or farm becomes badly infested, it’s lights out and there’s nothing for it but to lay it down to grass – simple as.

That’s fine if you could make something worthwhile out of beef but now you can’t. Larry Goodman et al have seen to that.

Inspections

However, back to the blackgrass. The Department of Agriculture needs to get its finger out as well and force the destruction of infested crops and make blackgrass a notifiable weed. Seed crop inspections will have to be meticulously carried out with a blackgrass zero-tolerance policy for certifiable seed, which they don’t have in the UK. Seed and straw imports from the UK should also be banned.

If it’s a double whammy and Roundup goes and blackgrass comes, it’s a perfect storm and the end of cereal growing, certainly by sustainable non-ploughing methods, as far as I’m concerned. Blackgrass is as detrimental to Irish cereal production as Brexit is to beef.

Thankfully, the huge biomass winter barley crops which are impossible to bale, yielded well with an overall average of 4.10t/ac at 16% moisture. That’s a fine yield for us because we’re far from being a winter barley farm.

Besides, I don’t like barley. Merely thinking about it makes me scratch and its dust is worse than smoking 40 Sweet Afton as it sends me wheezing for the inhalers.

I had to get a contractor in to finish the barley harvest as we lost a couple of days when a straw walker broke on our Claas.

The oilseed rape harvest has not been completed but so far the average yield is 1.93t/ac at 11% but the onset of the monsoon season and lodging may make this difficult to maintain.

The oats came in with a yield of 3.69t/ac. The sample looks a tad light and the bushel weight may not be brilliant but say nothing to Chris in Drummonds.

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