Brian Shaw was busy combining winter barley and oilseed rape at Barton Hill Farm, Lilley, Beds, today (21 July).

“We’ve done about 101ha (250 acres) of Flagon winter barley and it looks alright,” he said. “I didn’t expect any record yields this year because we had so much rain in June and disease came in quite rapidly.”

Flagon averaged about 6.8t/ha (2.75t/acre), said Mr Shaw. “We made a start on the 101ha (250 acres) of Carat last night, and on the 364ha (900 acres) of oilseed rape this morning. We only finished spraying it off on Friday – it’s been very slow to ripen, so it will be a fortnight until the last bits are ready.”

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Flagon
Area: 101ha (250 acres)
Yield: 6.8t/ha (2.75t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Carat
Area: 101ha (250 acres)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Castille, Astrid, Catana and Canti
Area: 364ha (900 acres)