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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

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 –…

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Case studies

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…

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Community

FARMLIFE

Harvest 2018 photo competition: Winner and best of the rest

We've had a bumper crop of entries for this year's harvest photo competition – almost 1,000 reader snaps were uploaded to our gallery. We were impressed by the creativity of…

FARMLIFE

Get your harvest photo on FW's cover – competition open

There's still time to enter your best photos of harvest 2018 into our competition to find a jaw-dropping front cover image for Farmers Weekly magazine. We want to celebrate harvest…

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…

FARMLIFE

10 ways of coping with being a 'harvest widow'

Combines are rolling, so we should spare a thought for all the spouses who will be leading a solitary existence until harvest is complete. If you’re in that category, here…

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Insights

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…

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News

SUGAR BEET

Sugar beet area set to fall next spring as prices dip

The sugar beet area is set to fall next spring, reflecting a decline in beet prices as British Sugar forecasts a lower beet harvest this autumn. Britain's 3,000-plus sugar beet…

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet yields bounce back from summer drought

Sugar beet yields are coming in higher than expected following the severe summer drought, with 15% of the crop now harvested and feeding British Sugar’s four plants. While beet yields…

HARVEST

Dorset grower looks for a second season with soya

One Dorset grower is planning to drill soya beans for a second season despite a mediocre yield in his first attempt, driven by a desire to grow a protein crop…

SUGAR BEET

Beet harvest kicks off with better-than-expected yields

The 2018 sugar beet campaign has started in Lincolnshire with better-than-expected yields considering the shorter growing season and summer drought. Contractor Richard Ivatt started lifting sugar beet a week ago…

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Opinion

HARVEST

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 bounce back from summer drought

Sugar beet yields are coming in higher than expected following the severe summer drought, with 15% of the crop now harvested and feeding British Sugar’s four plants. While beet yields…

HARVEST

Video: Winter wheat harvest success for Hands Free Hectare

The Hands Free Hectare team has successfully harvested the world's first winter wheat crop to be grown by robots. The project, which first set out to grow and harvest a…

HARVEST

Video: Yields down but quality also a worry for spring crops

Delayed drilling due to the wet spring and an early harvest have combined to take their toll on both the yield and quality of one Essex grower’s 480ha of spring…

HARVEST

Harvest 2018 video: wheat quality good but yields disappoint

The early wheat harvest is producing generally high-quality grain although yields are lower, with many crops having seen no rain for more than two months in the summer heatwave. Early…

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