Hail causes damage in Suffolk
Heavy hail has damaged crops in parts of Suffolk, where Martin Pratt has been cutting oilseed rape and winter barley.
“Some places have taken quite a bit of damage – there are crops of oilseed rape which look quite white, where the seed has been shed.”
Fortunately, Mr Pratt was up to date with combining at Tye Farm, Nedging Tye, with 60ha of rape and 20ha of winter barley already cleared.
“When it’s 30°C things change so quickly – last week was a really good week.”
Yields were down on last year, but the rapeseed had still averaged a respectable 4.15t/ha over the combine scales.
“We had half Cabernet and half Camelot – there wasn’t much difference between them, although the Camelot was a lot easier to harvest because it’s shorter.”
Cassata winter barley had averaged 7t/ha, and Mr Pratt hoped it was going to make the malting grade.
“It looks nice and bold; I just hope the nitrogen will be right.”
The remaining 30ha of oilseed rape wouldn’t be ripe until later this week, while the 190ha of wheat was about 10 days off, he added.
“It doesn’t look particularly good – there are a lot of shrivelled grains and fusarium.”
Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Cabernet
Area: 30ha
Yield: 4.15t/ha
Variety: Camelot
Area: 30ha
Yield: 4.15t/ha
Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Cassata
Area: 20ha
Yield: 7t/ha
