Quality worries in Derbyshire

James Chamberlain has got at least three good days of harvesting yet at Glebe Farm, Derbyshire, and is getting concerned about milling wheat quality.

“We have had rain every day this week,” he said. “The wheat is all standing but it’s difficult to think it’s going to hang onto its Hagberg when it does nothing but rain.”

The 182ha (450 acres) of Solstice cut so far had yielded 10t/ha (4t/acre) as a first wheat and 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre) as a second wheat.

Protein was low at 11-12%, but Hagbergs had been good so far. Moisture contents ranged from 17-21%. “I’ve dried 1500t of wheat so far.”

The Quench and Waggon spring barley for seed did well at 6.8-7.4t/ha (2.75-3t/acre), said Mr Chamberlain.

He now had 60ha (150 acres) of wheat to cut. “It’s just too wet to do anything.” He also needed to drill all his oilseed rape.

“The land is jolly wet now. But it’s more important to put it in correctly rather than fudge it.”

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Solstice
Area: 182ha (450 acres)
Yield: 8.6-10t/ha (3.5-4t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Varieties: Quench and Waggon
Area: 120ha (300 acres)
Yield: 6.8-7.4t/ha (2.75-3t/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Grace
Area: 162ha (400 acres)
Yield: 3.6t/ha (1.45t/acre)