Harvest Highlights: Scots make headway as wheat harvest nears end elsewhere

Winter wheat harvest should soon be completed across much of the country, but in Scotland growers are only 5-10% through their wheat and spring barley.

More rain in Essex this morning was preventing Peter Wombwell from making a start on his organic spring wheat for a few days, but the rest of his wheat was all in the barn.

And harvest was almost finished in Kent, where Mike Wilkinson’s wheat yields were almost 1t/ha (0.4t/acre) down, at less than 10t/ha (4t/acre). Where milling wheat had been harvested before the rain the quality was good, he said.

In Shropshire Guy Davies hoped to finish his winter wheat today (August 24) and tie up the 28ha (70 acres) of Cocktail spring barley tomorrow.

Although wheat yields were about 1.2t/ha (0.5t/acre) down, Mr Davies was very pleased with his winter barley and rape, which averaged 9-10t/ha (3.6-4t/acre), and 4.1-4.6t/ha (1.65-1.85t/acre), respectively.

Oilseed rape also did better than expected at John Moss’s Howton Farm in Cornwall. He was cutting a disappointing crop of Alchemy winter wheat today (August 24) and was about 80% through harvest – about normal for this time of year.

But in Scotland harvest was a week to 10 days behind normal, and Glencore trader Ian Simpson reckoned it would take to the end of September to tie up. Farmers were about 5-10% into their spring barley and wheat, and yields so far looked about average, he said.

To read any of these reports in full, or see more from around the UK, visit FWi’s Harvest Highlights 2007.

* If you’ve got a harvest story then call us on 020 8652 4082. You can also get involved on the new FWiSpace forums where you can chat directly with other farmers and share the high and lows of this year’s challenging summer.You can also share your harvest pictures by sending them to us, to make sure they appear on our dedicated Harvest Highlights 2007 Picture Gallery.

If you prefer, we can set you up with your own gallery where you can upload pictures at any time to share them with other farmers.

We are hoping to print a selection of the best harvest pictures submitted each week in Farmers Weekly magazine. Please be aware that for use in the magazine we will need pictures to be taken using the highest quality setting on your camera.