Best wheat ever near Easingwold
Chris Smith has almost finished combining near Easingworld, Yorkshire, with just 6ha (15 acres) of spring rape left to cut.
“That’s still about 10 days off,” he said.
Although there was still quite a lot of wheat to cut in the area, Mr Smith finished combining for his customers on Saturday evening (3 September).
“Judging by the smiles, it’s done pretty well. It’s the best yield we’ve ever had, averaging 10t/ha (4t/acre) easily.”
All the wheat had been sown on strong land this year, with some fields topping 12.4t/ha (5t/acre).
But oilseed rape, on light land, also performed well, from 4.4t to over 5t/ha (1.8-2t/acre). “It’s obviously been a good oilseed rape season.”
Mr Smith was now getting ready to drill wheat, having sown a large acreage of oilseed rape.
“People are putting a lot of hybrids in this autumn – I don’t think I’ve drilled any conventional varieties, with most of it being Expower and Compass.”
He was trialling three different approaches this season – two types of direct drilling, and one conventional minimum tillage, at different seed rates.
“It will be interesting to see the results.”
Crop: Winter wheat
Yield: 10t/ha (4t/acre)
Crop: Oilseed rape
Yield: 4.4-5t/ha (1.8-2t/acre)
Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Volume
Area: 80ha (200 acres)
Yield: <4t/ha (1.6t/acre)
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