Poor yields all round

17 August 2001



Poor yields all round

SIMON WALTER, who farms at Hayling Island, east of Portsmouth, is reporting low yields in all crops. “Its going badly, but were getting it done.”

They started combining Abbott wheat off gravelly land three weeks ago. It was combined at 14-16% moisture and has since made milling quality.

The main problem has been winter drilling conditions. They only managed to drill 32ha (80acres) of winter wheat and 40ha (100 acres) of winter oilseed rape drowned in the brick earth soil.

As a result, there is spring barley and spring oilseed rape on the farm, which are not normally grown.

“Optic spring barley has yielded under two tonne an acre. This is very poor, even though we do not normally grow it.” It has made malting quality with nitrogen between 1.85-1.95%.

They are combining Bunting peas at the moment for Bachelors. These are yielding 2.5t/ha (1t/acre), which is a long way below average.

He hopes to move back into winter wheat by the weekend. “Weve only had a few showers in the last two weeks. I dont think the wheat will come to any harm as they have not been fit till now.”

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