Harvest at Sentry Farming’s Blagdon and Hartley Main Farms, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear, got underway on Friday with 45ha of winter barley cut.

Although farm manager Andrew Crewdson only started combining as a bit of a trial, he found the Pearl winter barley was coming off at 17% moisture, so carried on going into the weekend.

“There was quite a lot of flood damage, but where the crop was there, the yield was alright,” he said.

Overall, it averaged 6.4t/ha with a bushel weight of 69-70kg/hl, rising to 7.2t/ha in the better patches.

Volume winter barley, delivered into the store at 16% moisture, yielded 7.7t/ha, with a surprisingly bold bushel weight (for the variety) of 66kg/hl.

Unfortunately, two inches of rain stopped play yesterday (5 August), so Mr Crewsdon expected to back on again sometime tomorrow. “We’ve got 100ha of winter barley to do, and then I think the combine will be packed up for two weeks.”

That would give the farm staff plenty of time to bale the straw – which had averaged about 3t/ha – and start drilling oilseed rape. “We’ll start drilling tomorrow or Thursday – I just hope after two awful autumns that we get a kind one,” he said.

Oilseed rape was about three to four weeks later than normal, and hadn’t even been sprayed off yet, but winter wheat had caught up well.

“When we sprayed it at the flag leaf stage it was 10 days late, but the hot weather has brought it along very quickly,” said Mr Crewsdon.

“The timing of the winter barley harvest was perfect, and spring wheat and spring barley are turning now – so we’ll cut them in September. But the beans are still very green – it’s been a very strange year.”

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Flagon
Area: 45ha
Yield: 6.4t/ha