Rained off near Exeter

Harvesting near Exeter, Devon, is on hold today (15 August) following a spell of wet weather, but after last year contractor Troy Stuart is not complaining.

“We’ve made a bit of progress – we started two weeks later than usual and are about 200ha behind where we should be, having cut 243ha so far,” he said.

With no winter barley to cut, Mr Stuart had combined a mixture of oilseed rape, wheat, spring barley and oats near Clyst St Mary, Exeter – with variable results.

“Spring barley has done very well for us – it was mostly Tipple and yielded 6.2-6.7t/ha with a nice bold sample,” he said.

Early drilled Grafton winter wheat had also performed well for the year, at 7.4t/ha. “The bushel weight and sample are good, too.”

However, winter oats had been extremely poor, having been drilled into wet conditions and struggled ever since. “They did less than 5t/ha,” said Mr Stuart.

Oilseed rape was also disastrous. “Where it had grown in the field it was okay, but there were lots of bare patches and weedy patches – overall it averaged less than 2.5t/ha.”

Once the weather dried up again, Mr Stuart expected to move into some spring oats, followed by peas or winter wheat.

“Some of the oilseed rape still isn’t fit, and we’re not planning to drill next year’s crop yet,” he said. “It’s plenty early enough – we’ll make a start on that at the end of August.”

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Grafton
Area: 24ha
Yield: 7.4t/ha

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Tipple
Area: 80ha
Yield: 6.2-6.7t/ha

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Cabernet and PR46W21
Yield: <2.5t/ha