Cereal crops in Ireland are categorised as spring cereals or winter cereals depending on the time of the year they are drilled. Winter cereals comprising wheat, barley and oats are drilled in the autumn. Spring barley, oats and wheat are the three main spring cereal crops
Winter cereals is the term used to describe autumn drilled wheat, barley and oats. The area of winter cereals grown in Ireland is around 150,000 ha. Winter wheat and barley dominate the area with around 70,000 ha each, whereas only 10,000 ha of winter oats are drilled each year. Read More »
The main spring cereal crops are barley, wheat and oats. Spring Barley is the largest spring crop with approximately 150,000ha sown each year. There is approximately 16,000 hectares of Spring Wheat sown and 14,000 hectares of Spring Oats sown annually. Read More »
The timing of the final fungicide in barley has na impact on it's effectiveness
Spring Barley is primarily used for feed production, with 87% going to the livestock sector. A significant proportion, 13%, is used for premium malting and roasting.
Spring Wheat is used for animal feed production, which accounts for 94% of output. Some, 6%, is sold to the milling market for human consumption, however this varies from year to year, due to difficulties meeting milling standards in our climate.
Mainly used for the production of horse feeds and other animal feeds, some oats are used for milling, for human consumption, and also as seed for export. The demand for food grade oats is on the rise, on both domestic and international markets.
John Finnan explains how new markets are opening up for Oats and from research conducted at Teagasc how Oat Farmers can take advantage of the new markets.
Shay Phelan gives a March 2020 update of the Winter Barley
Mark Plunkett gives advice on the P&K requirements for Winter Cereals
