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Know How / Harvest

Harvest is the busiest time of year for arable farmers. Get ready for harvest with advice on hiring harvest workers, maintaining combines and harvest kit and preparing grain stores and crop storage. Keep-up-to date with harvest progress around the country and get the yield results as they come in. 

Advice and tips

HARVEST

Video: Farmer shares lessons learnt fighting huge crop fire

Since the early start to harvest at the beginning of July, Twitter has been awash with reports of crop fires across the country, exacerbated by tinder-dry conditions. As the hot,…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Why fusarium risk is rising in wheat and how to manage it

With rising incidence of fusarium ear blight and changes to mycotoxin legal limits on the horizon, experts are advising wheat growers to adopt a more water-tight, integrated approach to minimising…

ARABLE

Tips for raising oilseed rape yields

Oilseed rape growers taking part in an Adas-organised yield competition averaged 0.5t/ha more than their counterparts in Germany last season, a country that has historically out-yielded the UK. While the…

MACHINERY

Top tips to keep your combine running in the wet

August invariably delivers a spell of bad weather, so we’ve put together 20 top tips from the experts on how to ease the flow of damp crops through the combine.…

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Archive

FARMER FOCUS

Farmer Focus: Worried about poor cereal drilling conditions

Harvest finally finished on 6 October, when the last of our 1,266ha went through the combine. And in a fitting end to the season, a sunny day turned to drizzle…

FARMER FOCUS

Farmer Focus: Third wet harvest takes its toll

I like to think I am normally reasonably positive and optimistic, but this harvest and the past couple of weeks, in particular, have really tested me and, I'm sure, many…

FARMER FOCUS

Farmer Focus: Only 10 good combining days this harvest

Harvest is finally complete and although it has dragged on, we have had one of our earlier finishes, particularly with the wheat harvest finishing on 2 September. All in all,…

FARMER FOCUS

Farmer Focus: Spring barleys reviewed as harvest drags on

As harvest has progressed, the weather pattern seems to be getting worse, with frequent rain meaning that to date we have only managed a maximum of three successive whole days…

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Case studies

HARVEST

Video: Farmer shares lessons learnt fighting huge crop fire

Since the early start to harvest at the beginning of July, Twitter has been awash with reports of crop fires across the country, exacerbated by tinder-dry conditions. As the hot,…

PULSES

How winter bean grower in Yorkshire achieved top yields

A perfect bean-growing year produced a record yield for one East Yorkshire grower and a good enough sample for human consumption to win a prestigious quality award. Robin Smyth grew…

ARABLE

Video: Hands Free Hectare - what next for the farming robots?

Excitement, pride, trepidation – just some of the feelings buzzing around a perfectly square hectare field in Shropshire as a driverless combine took its first bite of a crop that…

HARVEST

Lincs grower sets sights on 2018 wheat yield record attempt

Lincolnshire Wolds grower Tim Lamyman is planning to drill his winter wheat earlier this autumn in his quest to break the world wheat yield record, after falling short this summer.…

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Community

HARVEST

More ways of coping with being a 'harvest widow'

Our article, "10 ways of coping with being a 'harvest widow'", seemed to strike a chord with all those spouses leading a largely solitary existence while harvest is under way. It…

FARMLIFE

10 ways of coping with being a 'harvest widow'

[caption id="attachment_1288108" align="alignnone" width="900"] © Tim Scrivener[/caption] Combines are rolling, so we should spare a thought for all the spouses who will be leading a solitary existence until harvest is…

HARVEST

9 ways farmers can beat harvest stress

Harvest is upon us and it is a time of year that tests even the most patient combine driver, turning saint-like farmers into gibbering wrecks. A long spell of dry…

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Insights

HARVEST

Harvest verdict: OSR the big winner for 2017

Oilseed rape yields jumped sharply this summer as the weather seemed to suit the crop while the picture with wheat output was more regional. Prospects for the rapeseed crop edged…

BARLEY

Why 2017 was a bad lodging year and how to avoid it

Seasonal factors were the cause of much of the lodging that occurred in wheat and barley crops in 2017, rather than variety weaknesses or a decline in standards. Cereal growers…

HARVEST

Harvest 2017: The 5 top-yielding spring barley varieties

Throughout the harvest season we’ll be updating this handy map with the latest data from this year’s AHDB spring barley recommended list 2017 harvest results. Use the map below to find…

HARVEST

Harvest 2017: The 5 top-yielding winter wheat varieties

Throughout the harvest season we’ll be updating this handy map with the latest data from this year’s AHDB winter wheat recommended list 2017 harvest results. Use the map below to find…

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News

HARVEST

Harvest 2018: Barley surprises but worries over wheat

Winter barley and oilseed rape crops have exceeded expectations in a number of areas, despite the drought, but there are still concerns surrounding wheat crops. With winter barley and oilseed…

HARVEST

Harvest 2018: Rapeseed yield and quality down

Winter barley continues to look good in terms of quality. However, grain stores are reporting that oilseed rape is looking less promising with both yield and quality concerns. Somerset "Barley…

HARVEST

Harvest 2018: Early wheat harvest starts with average yields

The earliest wheat harvest in living memory kicked off this week on a few scattered farms across southern England, with average-looking yields and indications of good grain quality from the…

HARVEST

Neighbours rally to help farmer fight blaze in barley

A farmer has thanked neighbours and firefighters for helping to contain a field fire that destroyed 47ha (116 acres) of winter barley but saved 8,000 pigs from being burned alive.…

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Opinion

HARVEST

Opinion: Dad's sayings fit Harvest 2016 very well

For some reason, that probably lies deep in my subconscious, I think about Dad a lot at harvest time. He died in autumn 2007, so this is the ninth harvest…

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Video

HARVEST

Video: Farmer shares lessons learnt fighting huge crop fire

Since the early start to harvest at the beginning of July, Twitter has been awash with reports of crop fires across the country, exacerbated by tinder-dry conditions. As the hot,…

ARABLE

Video: Sugar beet yields heading for 100t/ha in Lincolnshire

This season’s bumper sugar beet harvest is progressing well with about one-third of the 107,000ha planted now out of the ground and a quarter of the crop already processed. In Long…

ARABLE

Video: Bumper yields forecast as sugar beet harvest begins

The sugar beet lifting campaign kicked off more than a week early on Thursday with high hopes of bumper beet yields and a near-record national harvest. British Sugar’s factory at…

HARVEST

7 fantastic farmer videos to celebrate Harvest 2017

It started early, has given us a mixed bag of yields and quality and now rain is turning harvest 2017 into a late finisher in some parts of the country.…

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