Soaking Autumn takes toll on winter planting
OUR soaking Autumn looks to put a real dampener on the acreage of winter corn sown in Galway and across the West for 2020 – although the drier conditions over last weekend will have been a help.
Record rainfall through August followed on by a very wet September and a dank October, have made ground conditions very difficult to work with.
According to Galway IFA Grain Representative, John Daly, the winter corn acreage will be ‘well down’ in Galway this year – a trend that’s in line with the rest of the country.
“The ground has never really dried out since the downpours we got in August – there was a bit of soakage last week which was a help but overall conditions are still very soft,” said John Daly.
He added that last year, winter crops had accounted for about 40% of the grain grown in Galway but this figure would now be well down for the 2020 season.
“It’s the same story from everyone – the ground was just far too wet for machinery to operate. While bits of progress have been made here and there, overall the acreage will be well back,” said John Daly.
He said that while a good week of weather would be a help in terms of getting crops planted there would inevitably be a reduction in acreage before the winter sowing season drew to a close, normally around November 10.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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