Farmer Focus: Flash harvest gives low yields and no profits

Harvest seems to have been and gone in a flash. The going was dry to very dry, with underwhelming results – the straw yield was also closer to the pre-harvest predicted yields than the grain.

Without long-term storage, the wheat is currently being loaded out and looks like it might scrap 7.5t/ha. Just.

See also: How new grain store secured farm’s future after storm

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Richard Harris

Richard Harris manages his family farm in partnership with his father in south Devon. The farm grows wheat, barley, linseed, grass and cover crops, with a small pick-your-own pumpkin patch.

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Sold at £175/t, it’s certainly not a profitable combination. Such is life, as they say. We will try again next year…

Interestingly, there was very little difference between the first and second wheats this year.

Not something I’ve seen before. Usually, I’d expect somewhere a 2t/ha lift, so I’m not quite sure where that went.

I think the spring barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) had a more significant impact on yield than the heat and lack of rainfall, as we are quite protected from those extremes compared with the east of the country.

So there will be more attention on the aphids in the next cropping cycle. I have a hunch that with our changing climate, spring BYDV infection could become more common in the mild South West .

The straw yield, however, was pleasing. The 4.5t/ha of round bales stacked in the shed to sell out over the winter will help offset the yield and price combination of the grain.

Very nice, dry stuff should make for good bedding or even eating with local silage stocks pretty low.

It’s going to be a long 12 months for the industry at this rate, with very little cake to go around and certainly no cherries on top to find.

Due to the small farm scale, we are quite well diversified, so will be relying on that to keep going, but that is certainly not the answer to food production, both financially or mentally.

It is pretty disheartening to work all year producing food, fixing breakdown after breakdown to end up relying on diversification to bail you out.

We all know, there is so much more than the crop input costs a farm must cover to keep afloat. Farm tracks, gates, fences, ditches, drainage, sheds, machinery.

The list goes on and doesn’t get any cheaper the longer you put it off. At least the farm tax bill won’t be a worry next year!