Wheat quality has held up remarkably well at Spring Farm, Wix, Essex, although Tim Cooper is slightly disappointed with yields.
“We cut 220ha of winter wheat which had high bushel weights and good protein,” he said. “It was ideal really, although yield was down to about 8t/ha.”
Although the wet weather had hampered the crops’ progress somewhat, Mr Cooper had only had to dry 100t of wheat.
“We’ve got a pretty aggressive fungicide policy, although it was still noticeable where fungicide had been washed off,” he said.
“We had very few spray days so we just had to take the risk some days, even though it put the fungicides under pressure.”
Rapeseed fared quite well, too, with oils and quality fine despite a yield drop to 4.25t/ha.
With harvest in the shed, Mr Cooper’s thoughts had turned to drilling wheat and managing his next crop of rapeseed, all of which was in the ground.
“We’ve drilled all of the rapeseed and we’ll be drilling wheat on Monday (24 September). Fingers crossed the rapeseed should be good but it’s too dry for it really.”
He was hoping rain would arrive at the weekend to liven the crop up and spur it on.
“We’re going to put slug pellets on tomorrow and then spray the volunteers,” he said. “It’s drying out quickly on top but when you’re only planting 50 seeds per square metre it’s hard not to lose some.”
Potato and onion harvest was also underway on the farm, with mixed results.
“The salad potatoes aren’t too bad but I think we will be lifting King Edwards in 10 days and it looks like yields will be down on those.
“Quality looks alright though, despite some greenness where the soil has been washed away by the rain.”
Mr Cooper’s onion crop also looked promising, despite battling the earlier cold and wet weather.
“There is one patch of seed onions which have struggled,” he said. “They’re uneven and they don’t like cold and wet weather so yields are likely to be down.”