Essex wheat looks good, despite dry weather

One Essex wheat crop is looking good despite receiving little rain, although there is a worry that high temperatures next week may limit the grain-filling process.

Ed Ford, who grows 300ha of milling winter wheat on his family farm in south Essex, has seen his crops recover well from a late and wet spring.

“The wheat is looking good for a good harvest, but we could do with a bit of rain,” he told Farmers Weekly.

See also: First barley crimping harvest gets under way in Devon

Farming some of the heaviest clay soils in England, which are likely to be some of the last to run short of moisture, he is concerned if temperatures start hitting 30C next week.

He farms 600ha of arable land with his family at Childerditch Farms, just south of Brentwood. They grow Crusoe, Skyfall, a small area of Zyatt and the German wheat Montana.

This is the second year he has grown Montana and last year it yielded 8t/ha at a grain protein of 14.4%, so he is looking to increase his current area of 50ha at the expense of Crusoe, which is suffering from  its well-know weakness to brown rust disease.

The crop of Montana wheat