What a harvest. Not as bad as last year but even so a battle from beginning to end, although it has been worse in some other areas. In a few days pretty much all of my clients combines will be put away for another year.
Winter barley yields were not as good as last year with spring barley yields varying from good on the early cut crops to poor on late crops due to loss of heads and major brackling.
Wheat yields were generally good - 11.25t/ha plus on the best fields - but there were some very poor second wheat yields of below 7.5t/ha.
Oilseed rape has been the surprise crop with very respectable yields varying from 3.75 to 5t/ha averages, which I think goes to show we are getting crops in too early and still too thick.
We are most definitely ahead of last year with pretty much all winter oilseed rape in by this week. The most forward crops are at two to four true leaves with volunteer control starting this week.
Winter wheat drilling started on Monday 7 September with Grafton and then moving on to Humber, which has yielded exceptionally well across the board.
Seed is varying from 49-59 thousand grain weight so check seed lots to ensure appropriate seed rates. The vast majority of wheat is dressed with Deter (clothianidin) allowing us to drill, roll and spray in good conditions. I have yet to see flufenacet fail in the dry.
Moisture is now going to be the limiting factor for the later drilled oilseed rape and particularly wheat after worked oilseed rape stubbles. Seed-beds though are very good allowing good sowing depth and seed-soil contact.
Where clients are up-to-date there will be winter barley and winter oats sown this week to take advantage of the dry conditions while we have them and then onto second wheats next week.
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