Sea mists delay harvest near Skegness

Harvest has been a stop-start affair at Willow Farm, Skegness, Lincolnshire, but David Pridgeon is managing to combine today (28 July).
“We had a lot of sea mists rolling in last week, which slowed us down – but the wind has changed now so it’s a lot drier,” he said.
So far Mr Pridgeon had cut half his oilseed rape and barley, and was pretty pleased with yields.
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Crop facts
- Crop: Winter barley
- Variety: Venture
- Yield: 9.9t/ha
“The Venture barley seems good; it’s pushing 9.9t/ha, and I think the hybrid barley will be better,” he said.
“Barley has been reliably good here for several years: I think the weather has been more favourable to barley than wheat.”
Charger oilseed rape had exceeded 5t/ha, with Compass coming in just under that and Palmedor high erucic rape yielding 4.2t/ha.
“Our wheat is about ready but I want to clear the winter barley and oilseed rape first,” said Mr Pridgeon.
“We’ve got a lot of Gallant and it’s struggled a bit with disease, so has died off a bit early.”