Stephen Hasell was happy with the results from the Caracas oilseed rape harvest this week on his farm near Wellington, Somerset.

“It appears to be good so far – there were more good crops than bad”.

He‘s combined 17 ha (42 acres) of rape yielding  4.32 t/ha (1.75 t/acre), but unfortunately moisture contents were too high at 12% forcing Mr Hasell to use his drier to bring them down to around 9%.

With the cost of oil (and diesel) set to increase further, drying crops is becoming an expensive process.

Minimum tillage is Mr Hasell‘s preferred establishment method on the farm, which he believes benefited the rape.

“Because we use min-till we were able to keep moisture in the ground, allowing the rape to become well established”.

“Some of the wheat looks fantastic,” added Mr Hasell, who grows mostly Claire.

However on one occasion the minimum till didn‘t work completely to plan.

“Ninety-nine percent of the wheat is good, but one 4ha (10 acre) field we left the stubble too long which took all the nitrogen out of the ground.”

Mr Hasell has also finished cutting his 19 ha (48 acres) of Pearl winter barley with reasonable yields at 7.41 t/ha (3 t/acre).

Moisture levels were at 15%, and although he hasn‘t got the specific weight results yet, he thinks they will probably be in the low 70‘s.