Steady progress in Wiltshire

29 August 2001



Steady progress in Wiltshire

WILTSHIRE GRAINS Nick Brown describes the progress in harvest as chugging along. He has seen over half of the wheat crop delivered and almost three quarters of the spring barley.

“Wheat has been dogged this year by low bushel weights, and the high yielding chalk land has driven protein down.” He says Hagberg is now starting to fall on early soft wheat crops, which should have been combined by now.

Spring barley has produced better than expected yields, but quality is becoming a concern. “Early crops which have not been combined yet are showing signs of pre-germination. The late stuff which is not as mature is ok at the moment.” Nitrogen is varied, with some very high at 2.1% and higher.

He has seen one sample of Chablis spring wheat. “The Hagberg is above 400, but the protein is almost 13%, which is not stunning. The bushel is 77Kg/hl.”

All farms with peas have finally got started. “Samples of Nitouche are clean and tidy, and there are also some feed varieties.”

“Farmers are generally quite pleased with yields. There have been wheat yields about 4t/acre (10t/ha) on chalk soil.”

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