Into the final third near Brandsby

Keith Snowball has made light work of harvest near Brandsby, Yorkshire, with spring barley running far quicker than the wheat it replaced.

“We had a fair wedge of spring barley to cut, which is combining more easily than the same wedge of wheat would,” he said.

Harvest was now about two-thirds complete, but yields had been extremely variable, he added.

The 162ha of Concerto and Tipple spring barley cut so far had averaged about 5.7t/ha, and produced a lot of straw; while spring wheat, cut yesterday (2 September) averaged 6.4t/ha.

“It had good bushel weight, but protein was a 11.3% and the Hagberg had dropped slightly, to 285, after last week’s rain, which was strange as it wasn’t fit then,” said Mr Snowball.

Gallant wheat at High Farm yielded 8.3t/ha and had a Hagberg of 385 seconds, with Crusoe yielding above average at 10t/ha.

“The only thing I didn’t like about the Crusoe was that the straw had brackled, even though it wasn’t over-ripe, at 17% moisture,” he said.

Cordiale had done well again, at 7.4t/ha, and reaching the required milling quality. And Viscount yielded an easy 10t/ha. “Where the wheat stayed established it’s done remarkably well,” said Mr Snowball.

Mascani winter oats, drilled in the autumn, were unexciting, but the same variety drilled in the spring had done well. “The spring oats aren’t ready yet, but they look very promising – they’re ready to be sprayed off now, so will be about 10 days off.”

Spring beans also looked well, but were extremely late, having been drilled in April, he added. “It could be Christmas by the time they ripen, although I’m not sure which Christmas!”

The only real disappointment had been oilseed rape. “Some patches have done over 5t/ha, but one 4ha field only produced six tonnes. It really hasn’t been very clever.”

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