Into the home straight at Ashton Farms
Harvest is into the home straight at Ashton Farms, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, but yields have been extremely variable.
“Crops on the heavier soils have been good, but on the lighter soils they are not very clever,” said arable manager Martin Smart.
“You don’t need any sophisticated technology to tell where the soil changes in the field – you just have to look out of the window; there are lots of interesting lines in the field where there are gas or water pipelines or old hedgerows.”
Mr Smart was combining Oakley winter wheat on the edge of the Cotswolds yesterday (1 September), and said there was a lot of secondary tillering.
“It’s yielding 13-14t/ha (5.3-5.7t/acre) at one end of the field, and 5.5-6t/ha (2.2-2.4t/acre) at the stoney end. But it’s nice to have dry spell and to be combining at sensible moisture contents.”
Overall, Oakley and Diego had averaged about 10t/ha (4t/acre), with Hereward averaging the same with excellent milling quality. “It was absolutely fantastic.”
Oilseed rape also performed well, with Compass yielding an amazing 6.1t/ha (2.5t/acre). “It was the easiest to combine as it wasn’t too thick.
“Grandia and Sesame also did well. The rapeseed had a very long flowering period, which just suited the crops.”
Dimension, Flash, Primus and Climber yielded 5.88t/ha (2.38t/acre) at 8.3% moisture, with Record at 5.99t/ha (2.42t/acre). Oil contents were also good at over 44%.
“We like to do trials on heavy and light land on the farm, and are striving to match the variety to the individual soil type.”
Mr Smart now had 60ha (150 acres) of wheat to finish cutting, as well as 80ha (200 acres) of spring barley and the same of beans.
“It’s forecast to be wet from Saturday until Monday, but we’ve been combining five miles apart, with one at 16% moisture and the other rained off all day – it’s just so localised.”
Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Oakley and Diego
Area: 400ha (1000 acres)
Yield: 10t/ha (4t/acre)
Variety: Hereward
Area: 152ha (375 acres)
Yield: 10t/ha (4t/acre)
Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Compass, Grandia, Dimension, Flash, Record, Climber and Primus
Area: 400ha (1000 acres)
Yield: >5t/ha (2t/acre)
