Wheat harvest was looking better than barley for Guy Smith in St Osyth, Essex.

With moisture at 15.5%, 32ha of third wheat Xi19 yielded 7.6t/ha, with 13.5% protein and weight of 75kg/hl. He said despite these poor results, the wheat was leaving the farm at £85 per tonne on an early movement contract.

Mr Smith was generally optimistic about this harvest as this field had suffered most in the drought, so he had expected yields of 5t/ha. Things had been very dry for him, but a sudden 1.5 inches of rain had caused concern for the quality of his crop.

He said the 320 Hagberg seemed to be ok, but with the crops having already gone quite black he did not want to see any more rain.

His Pearl barley, by comparison had not been very good and suffered badly from the drought. With yields at 7.6t/ha, he was only getting £64 per tonne, compared to the £85 for the wheat.

He added: “Barley has got nothing now, it’s worse than wheat in both quality and yield.”

• Crop/ Variety: Xi19 Winter Wheat
  
• Area: 32ha
  
• Yield: 7.6t/ha
  
• Quality: 320 Hagberg, 13.5% Protein, Weight 75kg/hl, Moisture 15.5%