Careful harvest planning had yielded significant benefits at David Butler’s East Wick Farm, Wootton Rivers, Wiltshire.

“We’ve deliberately left some fields behind so that we’ve been able to get on cutting where otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to.”

For example, instead of finishing the oats and winter barley, he decided to leave some fields to combine after showers, as these crops would dry out much faster than oilseed rape or wheat.

“Considering it was a poor start with the weather, we haven’t got on too badly. It has been a stop-start harvest but we haven’t cut anything at embarrassing moistures this year.”

Despite some drizzle today (10 August), Mr Butler was combining winter wheat – all of which had been crimped so far.

He had sprayed off all his oats to lower the moisture and make the straw easier to combine, and was pleased with yields of 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre) at 13% moisture over the weekend.

Winter barley had yielded 6.4-6.7 (2.6-2.7t/acre), and oilseed rape had been pleasing at 3.9-4.2t/ha (1.6-1.7t/acre).

“Crops we laughed at in the spring are still quite good crops – Dimension has done the best.”

Crop: Winter oats
Variety: Gerald
Area: 45ha (112 acres)
Yield: 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Cassata
Area: 70ha (175 acres)
Yield: 6.7t/ha (2.7t/acre)

Variety: Pearl
Area: 70ha (175 acres)
Yield: 6.4t/ha (2.6t/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Dimension, Castille and Cabernet
Area: 192ha (474 acres)
Yield: 3.9-4.2t/ha (1.6-1.7t/acre)