Dorset farmer Nick Finding is pleased with early wheat results – but was halted by rain on Tuesday morning (3 August).

“The rain has been a bit frustrating but I suppose we can‘t really complain because this is the first day we’ve stopped since the beginning of harvest.”

He‘s already cut 50 ha (120 acres) of Cordiale winter wheat on his farm near Dorchester.

It was yielding 9.6 t/ha (3.89 t/acre), had a specific weight of 78 kg/hl and moisture content was ranging between 11-17%.

“We were concerned it wasn’t going to yield but it turned out better than expected.”

“We thought it was going to have problems as it’s a hard crop to keep clean, but we had a really nice heavy looking sample.”

Mr Finding has all but finished harvesting oilseed rape.

He said Winner was the lowest yielding variety at 2.47 t/ha (1 t/acre) while Caracas had performed the best with 3.9 t/ha (1.58 t/acre).

Mr Finding still has another 25 ha (60 acres) of Caracas still to harvest but the rain has prevented him from finishing it. “We‘ve been very lucky with the way it‘s all ripened.”
 
The Colossus barley achieved 7.25 t/ha (2.93 t/acre). “It was pretty good, we only budgeted for 6.5 t/ha (2.63 t/acre), so we’re pleased.”
 
Storms hit Mr Finding’s farm on Monday night (2 August) but he said it hadn’t caused any damage. “We’re quite pleased so far with what we‘ve achieved.”

Mr Finding also grows 201ha (496 acres) of Claire, 47ha (116 acres) of Robigus, 50ha (120 acres) Cordiale and 43ha (106 acres) of Einstein on his 1,416 ha (3,500 acres) farm which lies mostly on chalk.