Excellent wheat near Staunton
Harvest has gone surprisingly well at The Hawthorns, Staunton, Gloucester, with wheat yields 2.5t/ha (1t/acre) above Chris Padfield’s five-year average.
“Like a lot of farms in the area, we’re surprised at how good the yields have been. I’d like to claim it was me who found some secret formula, but everyone is the same.”
The Diego and Oakley had averaged 10.4t/ha (4.2t/acre), although Mr Padfield had not yet worked out individual averages for each variety.
Flash and D06 oilseed rape had yielded about average, at 4.2t/ha (1.7t/acre). “The Flash should have outyielded the D06, but they were both very comparable.”
Following a heavy dew this morning (19 August), Mr Padfield expected to be combining just before lunchtime.
“We’ve missed a lot of the rain; it’s been overcast and cloudy, but we’ve had a remarkably easy harvest.”
The Wizard winter beans had so far yielded about 3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre). “We’ve only got 8ha (20 acres) left to cut, and 30ha (75 acres) of linseed,” he said.
“We’ve finished planting our oilseed rape, and are now desperate for some rain. We had to pull our combine out of every field in 2007 because it was so wet – I guess we’re due a dry one.”
Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Diego and Oakley
Area: 100ha (250 acres)
Yield: 10.4t/ha (4.2t/acre)
Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Flash and D06
Yield: 4.2t/ha (1.7t/acre)
Crop: Winter beans
Variety: Wizard
Yield: 3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre)
