Winter barley and oilseed rape harvest is about 5% complete, according to the first harvest report from ADAS / HGCA.

By 15 July, farmers had cut about 20,000ha of winter barley, slightly ahead of the five-year average. Most of that had been in the South West, where around 30% of the region’s winter barley was now in the barn, it added.

“At this stage yields are looking to be better than average. Early season yields range from an average of 6.2t/ha in the East Midlands to 7.6t/ha in the West Midlands,” said the report.

Quality, based on a very small number of samples, seemed good, with specific weights ranging from 64-68kg/hl and nitrogen contents at 1.5-1.6%.

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“Moisture contents typically started at 16%, and decreased to 12% on hot days in the South West,” it added.

Straw was clean and bright, but about 1% of the crop area was suffering from lodging or brackling. “The crop is looking vulnerable and there is the risk that lodging could increase, if there are many more heavy storms between now and harvest.”

Oilseed rape harvest was also around 5% complete, with 30,000ha cut by 15 July – similar to the five-year average, said the report.

Yields of early maturing crops on light land were close to average at 3.3t/ha, ranging from an average of 3.2t/ha in the East Midlands to 3.7t/ha in the West Midlands.

However, often the earlier crops suffered from poorer quality and lighter yields than later crops, and some of the earlier samples had low oil contents and small seeds, it added. “The current range is 42-44.5% oil.”

Moisture contents typically ranged from 8% to 12%.

Wheat harvest was, as expected, yet to get underway. “But some crops were harvested for whole crop silage or for use in anaerobic digesters. Whole crop yields are in the region of 30-35 t/ha (fresh weight).”

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