Busy drilling near Wardley
Geoff Alderslade is getting on well with drilling at West Fellgate Farm, Wardley, Tyne & Wear, having finished a very variable harvest.
“We’ve got all the oilseed rape and first wheats in, plus some second wheats – and we’re now preparing the ground for barley,” he said.
“Harvest was very variable, to say the least. Anything that was drilled late didn’t yield very well at all, but anything put in early yielded very well.”
Early wheats yielded close to 10t/ha (4t/acre), with later drilled crops down to 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre).
“The milling wheat was fine – everything bar six trailer loads met the grade.”
Farmers still had some pockets of wheat left to cut in the area, as well as some spring oilseed rape and spring wheat.
“I cut some February-drilled Xi19 wheat on Wednesday (14 September), which came in at over 7.4t/ha (3t/acre).
“But it didn’t make the milling specification – the showers had made a mess of the Hagbergs.”
Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Duxford, Diego and Gallant
Yield: 6.2-10t/ha (2.5-4t/acre)
Crop: Spring wheat
Variety: Xi19
Yield: >7.4t/ha (3t/acre)
Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Expower
Yield: 4.9t/ha (1.98t/acre)
Variety: Excalibur
Yield: 4t/ha (1.6t/acre)
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