Ireland's grain harvest could come in below 2 million tonnes this year, according to a survey of members of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) national grain committee. Committee secretary Max Potterton put total output at 1.92 million tonnes, 14% down on 2025, in line with projections collated by the state agency Teagasc.
Yields in the survey, conducted on 13 August, were about half a tonne an acre below last year: winter barley 3.45 tonnes an acre, winter wheat 3.85 (against 4.3 in 2025), winter oats 3.5 and spring barley an average of 2.63, with very wide variation. Winter oilseed rape was "the star of the show" at 2 tonnes an acre and has been a very consistent crop in Irish conditions, Potterton said.
The weather explains much of it. A very wet January delayed fertiliser application, though spring disease pressure was low. Spring barley went in in two waves, in mid-March and about four weeks later; the earlier crops withstood the drought that ran from mid-June through July and August, while later-sown crops suffered from the lack of rain.
The dry run-up to harvest also hurt the quality of malting barley, in protein content and screenings, which compounds the problem of the poor prices on offer for malting barley. The committee says tillage farmers are being squeezed by poor yields and soaring production costs on already tight margins.
The report is by Richard Halleron for Agriland.
Photo: James T M Towill (barley harvest) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Agriland
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