Oilseed rape and barley harvest had finished for Odiham-based grower Andrew Janaway.

“Winter barley has been good,” he told FWi. “Nitrogens are slightly high at 1.85 but we’ve done just over 3t/ac with Pearl which is good for us.”

150 acres of Winner oilseed rape had yielded around 1.5t/ac which he also confirmed was “slightly better than average”.

“We’ve been harvesting at 6am to get damper rape to blend with drier rape from the previous afternoon. Moistures have ranged from 9.8% in the morning to 4.5% by the afternoon.”

Wheat harvest had just started “very early”, Mr Janaway said.

“We cut 80ac of Solstice which has done pretty well – about average at 3.4t/ac.

“On our drier land near Odiham and Hook which is quite gravelly, we’ve harvested Claire there and that had pretty much died rather than ripened.

“Quality and yield will have suffered on drought-prone land. The Claire did just over 3.1t/ac when we’d expect to get 3.4t/ac.”

Mr Janaway said he was not expecting a bumper year for wheat. “We may get better prices but that’ll only just make up for lower yields, so there’ll be no great impact on bottom line.”

Potato harvest had also started on his south coast land, he confirmed.

“We’ve been irrigating like mad on potatoes. Our abstraction licences end at the end of July and then we’ll be onto the reservoir. We’ll be under a lot of pressure at the tail end of the season.” 

Crop: Barley
Variety: Pearl
Yield: 3t/ac (above ave)
Area:100ac
Quality: 1.85N

Crop: OSR 
Variety:Winner
Yield: 1.5t/ac (above ave)
Area:150ac
Quality: 4.5-9.8% moisture

Crop: Wheat
Variety: Solstice
Yield: 3.4t/ac (about ave)
Area: 80ac

Crop: Wheat
Variety: Claire
Yield: 3.1t/ac (below ave)
Area: 100ac