Combining around the clock at Woodbridge

Dan Kiddy is making excellent progress with harvest at William Kerr Farms, Woodbridge, Suffolk, and is delighted with yields so far.
“We’ve been combining until the early hours of the morning for the past few days, and will do so again today (18 July) as we’ve got bright sunshine at the moment,” he said.
“There had been storms forecast for the weekend so everyone around here has abandoned the winter barley in favour of combining oilseed rape before it all drops on the floor.”
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So far Mr Kiddy had cut a 5ha trial plot of Volume winter barley, and a 9ha commercial field of the same variety.
“The trial plot yielded 11.2t/ha and the commercial plot did 9.9t/ha, so we’re quite happy with that,” he said. “We irrigated the trial plot, which is really what made the difference.”
Drilled at 95kg/ha, the Volume had looked good all year, and had out-competed blackgrass on the heavy land. “It’s looked better than the Retriever that’s drilled around it, and has a lovely bold and bright sample,” said Mr Kiddy.
He had also harvested 140ha of oilseed rape, with PR46W21 yielding 4.2t/ha and Cabernet 3.5-4t/ha. “We’re pretty pleased with that.”
Crop facts | |
---|---|
Crop: | Winter barley |
Variety: | Volume |
Area: | 19ha |
Yield: | 9.9-11.2t/ha |
Crop: | Oilseed rape |
Variety: | PR46W21 |
Area: | 48ha |
Yield: | 4.2t/ha |
Crop: | Oilseed rape |
Variety: | Cabernet |
Area: | 92ha |
Yield: | 3.5-4t/ha |