OILSEED rape harvest is proving a struggle for some and a misery for others, after crops were buffeted by another night of heavy rain.

Prices serve only to deepen the gloom.

“We‘re just going to try and ride this year out,” Kent Farmer Jonathan Tipples told FARMERS WEEKLY Harvest Highlights on Friday (July 23).

Poor autumn establishment has been followed by podding problems and then the crops were “thrashed about in the gales and the storms over the last few weeks”.

“And above all that, the prices are just awful,” he added.

Other farmers in the East, such as Lincs grower Andrew Buckley, are reporting a very average rape harvest so far.

“It‘s miserable – it‘s all very mixed and variable,” he said.

In Norfolk, Chris Harrison‘s Canberra oilseed rape has “done pretty well“, yielding 3.71t/ha (1.5 t/acre).

But he‘s not in full swing yet – “We started harvesting the Winner but had to stop because it wasn‘t completely ready.”

Nick Abram near Dereham, Norfolk has combined nearly 30ha (70 acres) of Fanfare barley yielding 6.8 t/ha (2.5 t/acre) from the combine yield monitor, which he considers average.

“Its not going too badly – we‘re quite pleased.”

Andrew Dewing from Aylsham Grain is concerned over nitrogen levels he has seen in malting barley samples, saying “this is certainly a high nitrogen year”.

But he adds “The biggest issue is still the price – some farmers are really miserable about these low prices.”

“Glorious” is how FWi Weather Services sums up prospects for Friday (July 23) evening, and it‘s set to stay.

So get out there and grease up that combine.