Starting maize near Buntingford
Harvest has gone extremely well at Scott & Scott contracting, Buntingford, Hertfordshire, where Warren Scott is about to start cutting maize.
“We finished the wheat about 10 days ago (4 September); we were quite lucky with the weather and it all came in in fairly good condition.”
Oakley and Diego first wheats yielded about 10t/ha (4t/acre), with Cordiale, some drilled after sugar beet, at 8.4t/ha (3.4t/acre).
“It suffered badly in the drought, but we’re still over the moon – and it all made full milling quality.”
High erucic acid oilseed rape also yielded well, at 4t/ha (1.6t/acre). “That’s the best we’ve ever done. I don’t think we could have asked for any better than that.”
Mr Scott had drilled all of next year’s oilseed rape and about half his first wheats. “It’s fantastic; the ground conditions are just right.”
He was now about to start cutting 730ha (1800 acres) of maize to feed the first of three new anaerobic digesters at the farm.
“They will produce 1.2mW an hour, and hopefully we’ll have all three up and running by April next year.
“We might use sugar beet tops and grass from Stanstead airport to keep the maize requirement down – but we’ll be growing 1215ha (3000 acres) of maize next year.”
Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Oakley
Area: 200ha (500 acres)
Yield: 10t/ha (4t/acre)
Variety: Diego
Area: 200ha (500 acres)
Yield: 10t/ha (4t/acre)
Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Palmedor and Helico
Yield: 4t/ha (1.6t/acre)
