John Moss of Howton Farm, Pillaton in Cornwall remained optimistic about the harvest, despite the recent “atrocious” weather.

Mr Moss started to harvest winter barley a week ago (11/07/07), having only been able to do small amounts before that.
Of the winter barley harvested yields came in at 6.2t/ha (2.5 t/acre) for Sequel and 6.6t/ha (2.66 t/acre) for the two fields of Saffron harvested. He feared that the barley could be past it’s sell by date for crimping.

Mr Moss had also grown some oilseed rape which he thought had been affected by the dry weather. He was unsure about the exact yield of the 40ha (100 acres) of Castille, but expected it to lie between 3.1-3.2 t/ha (1.25-1.278 t/acre).

Moisture contents on the small area cut so far ranged between 13% – 17%, “it’s caused huge problems and it is still early days,” he said.

He told FWi that his only full combine day started from 11:30 last Wednesday. However after some failed attempts since then, today he told us that he was about to try again today.

*Harvest highlights 2007 is sponsored by RAGT