Grain carting near Stratford

John Wilcox is busy grain carting today (2 September) at Batch Acre Hall, Stratford, Staffordshire, and hopes to finish the final 7ha of wheat tomorrow.

“It wants cutting now – it’s surprising how it has deteriorated over the past 10 days; it doesn’t want any more rain,” he said.

Yields, however, had been exceptional, with Gallant and Crusoe averaging 10t/ha and feed wheats 11.4t/ha. “The Gallant probably won’t make the milling grade as its protein is between 9% and 12%,” said Mr Wilcox.

“But the Crusoe came in at almost 12% so it should make some premium.”

See also: Video – harvesting around the country.

Cassia winter barley, grown on heavy ground before oilseed rape, did 7.4t/ha. “It was nothing to shout about.” And a small area of spring barley on poor ground was also unexciting, at almost 5t/ha.

“The oilseed rape, though, was very good,” said Mr Wilcox. “We grow a lot of potatoes here and only started growing oilseed rape recently, so it’s on virgin ground.

“It yielded about 4.3t/ha and had good oils, so we’re pleased with that.”

Unfortunately, the prices were fairly diabolical. “We just sold 180t of barley in at £109/t delivered, which is pretty poor, but we need the shed for the potatoes.

“But the potato market is even worse – yields are only average at 44t/ha graded out and at £70/t that just doesn’t stack up.”

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