Signpost: Spring barley this year is some of the best I have seen in a long time

Tom Barry on the Barry family farm at Kilavullen, Co Cork. 'I estimate the winter barley harvest will start around mid-July for us here.' Picture Dan Linehan

At the time of writing this piece, we are after receiving over 30mm of rain in the past 24 hours here in Killavullen and this morning I was quite nervous when heading out to check my crops as I feared there may have been areas of spring barley and oats that had fallen but thankfully everything was still standing perfectly. 

The spring barley this year is some of the best I have seen in a long time and always such dense and heavy crops are always a worry.