Wheat under way in the North East
Farmers in North-East England have been rained off again today (16 August), after a day and half of combining on Sunday afternoon and Monday.
“People didn’t get a lot done last week, so they kept on cutting until they were rained off at 2am this morning,” said Gary Bright, managing director of GrainCo.
“It’s a real charge to try and get the oilseed rape and barley finished.”
The first few loads of winter wheat started to come into the Tynegrain store yesterday, with Group One and Two varieties passing for milling at 80kg/hl, 280 Hagberg and 13-14% protein.
“Early yield reports have been encouraging. If it wasn’t for the annoying weather, farmers would be very pleased with how it’s going.”
Oilseed rape had come in at 3.3t-5.6t/ha (1.5-2.25t/acre), with very high oil contents, said Mr Bright.
“Hybrid winter barleys have done well; 10t/ha (4t/acre) has been the norm. The likes of Pearl weren’t so good, at about 7.4t/ha (3t/acre).
“But there’s still a lot of rapeseed and winter barley to do up here.”
He reckoned about 50% of oilseed rape and 70% of winter barley had been cut in the Newcastle area, with less cut in Scotland and further North.
“Most of the wheat around here has now been sprayed off, so it will be getting very busy if the weather dries out – but every time it rains it take a bit longer to dry off.”
