Winter barley and rapeseed yields are better than last year at Andrew Watts’ Wallington Farms, Royston, Hertfordshire.

“It’s as late a harvest as we’ve had – we’ve only cut about half the winter barley and half the oilseed rape,” he said.

But following last year’s drought, which resulted in fairly poor yields, this year’s crops had performed extremely well.

“The Cassata barley has come in at over 7.5t/ha, which for us is very pleasing. If we get more than 7t/ha in our part of the world we’re very chuffed.

“We’ve also cut some Florentine – overall we’re probably averaging just over 7t/ha, and we haven’t cut the best of the crops yet because they’re not all fit.”

Excalibur oilseed rape had also done well, out-yielding the PR46W21.

“Our usual average is about 3.8t/ha – I think we’ll be doing 4-4.5t/ha this year, which is great.”

Despite some rain over the past day or so, Mr Watts expected to be back into oilseed rape this afternoon (2 August).

“Wheat is still a week away, and doesn’t look as bad as it might.”

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Excalibur and PR46W21
Area: 182ha
Yield: 4-4.5t/ha

Crop: Winter barley
Varieties: Cassata and Florentine
Area: 162ha
Yield: 7t/ha

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