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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. 

Advice and tips

WHEAT

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…

OILSEED RAPE

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.…

HARVEST

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 –…

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Archive

HARVEST

Farmer Focus: Worried about poor cereal drilling conditions

Harvest finally finished on 6 October, when the last of our 1,266ha went through the combine. And in a fitting end to the season, a sunny day turned to drizzle…

WHEAT

Farmer Focus: Third wet harvest takes its toll

I like to think I am normally reasonably positive and optimistic, but this harvest and the past couple of weeks, in particular, have really tested me and, I'm sure, many…

WHEAT

Farmer Focus: Only 10 good combining days this harvest

Harvest is finally complete and although it has dragged on, we have had one of our earlier finishes, particularly with the wheat harvest finishing on 2 September. All in all,…

HARVEST

Farmer Focus: Spring barleys reviewed as harvest drags on

As harvest has progressed, the weather pattern seems to be getting worse, with frequent rain meaning that to date we have only managed a maximum of three successive whole days…

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Case studies

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…

WHEAT

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…

WHEAT

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.…

VARIETY SELECTION

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…

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Community

HARVEST

More ways of coping with being a 'harvest widow'

Our article, "10 ways of coping with being a 'harvest widow'", seemed to strike a chord with all those spouses leading a largely solitary existence while harvest is under way. It…

HARVEST

10 ways of coping with being a 'harvest widow'

[caption id="attachment_1288108" align="alignnone" width="900"] © Tim Scrivener[/caption] Combines are rolling, so we should spare a thought for all the spouses who will be leading a solitary existence until harvest is…

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

9 ways farmers can beat harvest stress

Harvest is upon us and it is a time of year that tests even the most patient combine driver, turning saint-like farmers into gibbering wrecks. A long spell of dry…

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Insights

WHEAT

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…

WHEAT

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…

VARIETY SELECTION

Harvest 2017: The 5 top-yielding spring barley varieties

Throughout the harvest season we’ll be updating this handy map with the latest data from this year’s AHDB spring barley recommended list 2017 harvest results. Use the map below to find…

WHEAT

Harvest 2017: The 5 top-yielding winter wheat varieties

Throughout the harvest season we’ll be updating this handy map with the latest data from this year’s AHDB winter wheat recommended list 2017 harvest results. Use the map below to find…

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News

WHEAT

Essex wheat looks good, despite dry weather

One Essex wheat crop is looking good despite receiving little rain, although there is a worry that high temperatures next week may limit the grain-filling process. Ed Ford, who grows…

HARVEST

First barley crimping harvest gets under way in Devon

The cereal harvest is kicking off with Devon farmer Roger Adams cutting his winter barley and then crimping the high-moisture content crop to feed his beef cattle. In what is…

WHEAT

Ear blight disease building in wheat crops

Ear blight inoculum has been building over recent weeks with the return of drier and warmer weather, according to Fera’s Phil Jennings. As part of the Crop Monitor service, which…

SUGAR BEET

UK sugar beet yields hit record levels

Sugar beet growers are celebrating record beet yields from the 2017 harvest, following favourable weather throughout the season, as the lifting campaign came to an end just before Easter. Some…

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Opinion

NEWS

Opinion: Dad's sayings fit Harvest 2016 very well

For some reason, that probably lies deep in my subconscious, I think about Dad a lot at harvest time. He died in autumn 2007, so this is the ninth harvest…

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Video

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet yields heading for 100t/ha in Lincolnshire

This season’s bumper sugar beet harvest is progressing well with about one-third of the 107,000ha planted now out of the ground and a quarter of the crop already processed. In Long…

SUGAR BEET

Video: Bumper yields forecast as sugar beet harvest begins

The sugar beet lifting campaign kicked off more than a week early on Thursday with high hopes of bumper beet yields and a near-record national harvest. British Sugar’s factory at…

HARVEST

7 fantastic farmer videos to celebrate Harvest 2017

It started early, has given us a mixed bag of yields and quality and now rain is turning harvest 2017 into a late finisher in some parts of the country.…

WHEAT

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…

See all