Gerald Godfrey has just finished harvest at Great Common Farm, Beccles, Suffolk, with all his wheat, rapeseed and barley now in the shed.

“We’ve finished everything harvest wise although we’ve still got some baling to do,” he said.

He was now heading off to combine for a neighbour. “We’re mainly a livestock farm and plough everything, we don’t min-till. I think this had probably helped us.”

Crops on the whole had been quite good. “Cassia winter barley did 7.5t/ha with Florentine nearer 8.75t/ha, while wheat was doing between 8.75t and 10t/ha,” said Mr Godfrey.

“We’ve had no problem on bushel weights so far, so touch wood, we’ll get no deductions.”

Travelling conditions had also been fine – and even better than expected.

“We haven’t had any complaints this year really. The weather settled down towards the end so moistures weren’t a problem. In fact moisture contents were down to 12.5% one day.”

Mr Godfrey was also pleased to have had next year’s oilseed rape in the ground for two weeks.

“The rapeseed is coming up well,” he said. “We’ve been pretty fortunate in this neck of the woods really, I just hope we have a kind autumn as other cultivations could be difficult.”

Crop: Winter Barley
Varieties: Cassia and Florentine
Area: 35ha
Yield: 7.5–8.75 t/ha

Crop: Winter Wheat
Varieties: Diego, Scout, Santiago and Oakley
Area: 100ha
Yield: 8.75-10t/ha