UK harvest nears finishing line

Farmers have stormed through harvest over the weekend, with many finishing off across the country.
In Devon, Troy Stuart finally finished combining over the weekend (20/21 September).
“We managed to recover the crop – we haven’t had to abandon any,” he said. “Bushelweights are pretty dire and the later yields have been knocked.”
He now had to drill his oilseed rape and bale 810ha (2000 acres) of straw.
Bruce Udale finished harvest at Eyton House Farm, Telford, Shrops, on Friday night, and most people in the area were getting wrapped up now, he said.
Winter wheat and oat yields had been above average. “I’m pretty happy with harvest, considering the weather.”
Further east, Adrian Howell finished combining his linseed at Sutton Bridge, Lincs, last week, and was pleased with yields of 2.5t/ha (1t/acre).
“We harvested all the wheat at between 18% and 21% moisture and it was the highest yielding harvest for some time,” he said.
In Yorkshire, Catherine Thompson had finished harvest apart from a few fields which had been flooded.
“It is bottomless soil so we will get stuck if we go now, but if it dries out we hope to get it this week.”
She reckoned farmers had 10% of crops, including a lot of beans, to finish off in the area.
In Angus, Mike Cumming hoped to finish harvest at Lour Farms, tonight, after a stop-start weekend. “We are very reluctant to wait another day in case the weather breaks again.”
Farmers in the area had 30% of their wheat left to cut before the weekend, although that was likely to drop to 10% by mid-week, he said.
- With harvest now all-but complete in England and Wales, FWi will be concentrating on reports from the North, Scotland and Northern Ireland for the rest of this week.
- We will publish the next reports on Wednesday (24 September).
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Duxford winter wheat is an HGCA Recommended List 2008/09 variety with very high
See the New Farm Crops website. |