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Know How / Harvest

Harvest is the busiest time of year for arable farmers. Get ready for harvest with advice on hiring harvest workers, maintaining combines and harvest kit and preparing grain stores and crop storage. Keep-up-to date with harvest progress around the country and get the yield results as they come in. 

Latest harvest news

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HARVEST

Harvest 2019: Almost half of cereal and OSR crops combined

Nearly half of cereal and oilseed rape crops are now harvested, with sunny and warmer weather likely to speed up combining progress over the weekend. Some 1.7m ha of the…

HARVEST

Harvest 2019: Yields and quality looking up as sun returns

Harvest is back in full swing after recent rain, and although some crops have gone flat, yields and quality are looking promising across much of the country as the weather…

HARVEST

Harvest 2019: Wet weather fuels drying costs

Combines are starting to roll again this week, with high hopes of making good progress with a more settled spell being forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend. Especially with the…

HARVEST

Harvest 2019: Dry forecast offers hope in harvest washout

The past week has been largely a washout for many farmers combining between the showers, with many crops still standing and soggy straw lying in swaths still to bale.  There have…

HARVEST

Harvest 2019: Growers remain optimistic despite wet weather

Wheat and spring barley crops are trickling into grain stores across the country, as farmers desperately dodge showers to preserve crop integrity. Wiltshire Movement into Trinity Grain, Shrewton, has eased…

HARVEST

Harvest 2019: Six growers reveal the yield cost of flea beetle

Growers have been anxiously waiting for harvest to measure the true cost of cabbage stem flea beetle damage and assess whether they were right to persist with some crops and…

HARVEST

Harvest 2019: Soggy harvest delays OSR drilling

Heavy rain is hampering harvest progress, leaving crops and straw stuck in the field and farmers struggling to get on with oilseed rape drilling for next season.  Wiltshire Winter barley…

ARABLE

Six teens arrested after huge blaze destroys barley crop

Six teenage boys have been arrested in connection with a large fire that destroyed farmland and crops in north-east Lincolnshire. Firefighters said about 53ha of barley and surrounding grass and…

Must reads

Practical advice

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POTATOES

What potato growers need to consider before diquat ban

This is the last season that potato growers can use the broad-spectrum herbicide diquat to desiccate their potato crops, therefore, growers are being urged to look at alternatives this summer.…

BUSINESS

Business Clinic: Insurance tips for student harvest help

Whether it’s a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s experts can help. Here, Paige Dalby of insurance broker Farmers and Mercantile explains what checks to make when…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Why fusarium risk is rising in wheat and how to manage it

With rising incidence of fusarium ear blight and changes to mycotoxin legal limits on the horizon, experts are advising wheat growers to adopt a more water-tight, integrated approach to minimising…

ARABLE

Tips for raising oilseed rape yields

Oilseed rape growers taking part in an Adas-organised yield competition averaged 0.5t/ha more than their counterparts in Germany last season, a country that has historically out-yielded the UK. While the…

MACHINERY

Top tips to keep your combine running in the wet

August invariably delivers a spell of bad weather, so we’ve put together 20 top tips from the experts on how to ease the flow of damp crops through the combine.…

BUSINESS

Legal, tax and management tips for a smooth harvest

Farmers Weekly’s harvest webinar is packed with practical farm management, employment, tax and financial advice to help harvest go more smoothly. The advice comes from our Business Clinic partners –…

Case studies

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BARLEY

Barley grower sees winter crop come up trumps

Malting barley grower Andy Roberts’ strategy of growing both winter and spring crops paid a dividend this summer as good quality from the former made up for a more problematic…

HARVEST

Video: Farmer shares lessons learnt fighting huge crop fire

Since the early start to harvest at the beginning of July, Twitter has been awash with reports of crop fires across the country, exacerbated by tinder-dry conditions. As the hot,…

PULSES

How winter bean grower in Yorkshire achieved top yields

A perfect bean-growing year produced a record yield for one East Yorkshire grower and a good enough sample for human consumption to win a prestigious quality award. Robin Smyth grew…

ARABLE

Video: Hands Free Hectare - what next for the farming robots?

Excitement, pride, trepidation – just some of the feelings buzzing around a perfectly square hectare field in Shropshire as a driverless combine took its first bite of a crop that…

HARVEST

Lincs grower sets sights on 2018 wheat yield record attempt

Lincolnshire Wolds grower Tim Lamyman is planning to drill his winter wheat earlier this autumn in his quest to break the world wheat yield record, after falling short this summer.…

HARVEST

Video: World record OSR yield attempt in Lincolnshire

High on the Lincolnshire Wolds, grower Tim Lamyman is trying to break his own world yield record for oilseed rape and the omens look good. There is thick carpet of…

Insights

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POTATOES

Potato contractor finds the best tractor for flailing success

Lincolnshire potato contractor David Matthews expects potato haulms to have a high biomass at burndown time, thanks to this year’s growing season, and says growers will need a lot of…

VARIETY SELECTION

Harvest 2019: The 5 top-yielding winter oilseed rape varieties

Throughout the harvest season, we are updating our handy map with the latest data from 2019’s AHDB winter oilseed rape Recommended List harvest results. Use the map below to find…

HARVEST

Harvest 2019: The 5 top-yielding winter barley varieties map

Throughout the harvest season, we are updating our handy map with the latest data from 2019’s AHDB winter barley Recommended List harvest results. Use the map below to find the…

HARVEST

Two diquat alternatives trialled in linseed

Two alternatives to diquat for desiccating linseed crops are currently being trialled, with the aim of being available to growers for harvest 2020. Linseed growers currently only have two options…

HARVEST

How the drought has affected potato yields and quality

The eating potato crop is forecast to be nearly 20% smaller than last year in north-west Europe because of the summer drought, with tuber size and quality also suffering. Some…

VARIETY SELECTION

Cereal varieties: Winners and losers at harvest 2018

During the 2018 cereal harvest, wheat varieties were more likely to perform slightly below their long-term averages than to exceed yield expectations.  That’s why most of the 2018 results shouldn’t…

HARVEST

Harvest 2018: The 5 top-yielding spring barley varieties map

Throughout the harvest season we are updating our handy map with the latest data from 2018’s AHDB winter wheat Recommended List harvest results. Use the map below to find the…

HARVEST

Harvest 2018: The 5 top-yielding winter oilseed rape varieties

Throughout the harvest season we will be updating this handy map with the latest data from this year’s AHDB oilseed rape Recommended List 2018 harvest results. Use the map below…

HARVEST

Harvest 2018: The 5 top-yielding winter barley varieties

Throughout the harvest season we are updating our handy map with the latest data from 2018’s AHDB winter barley Recommended List harvest results. Use the map below to find the…

HARVEST

Harvest verdict: OSR the big winner for 2017

Oilseed rape yields jumped sharply this summer as the weather seemed to suit the crop while the picture with wheat output was more regional. Prospects for the rapeseed crop edged…

BARLEY

Why 2017 was a bad lodging year and how to avoid it

Seasonal factors were the cause of much of the lodging that occurred in wheat and barley crops in 2017, rather than variety weaknesses or a decline in standards. Cereal growers…