Harvest continues to rumble on in our region with the onset of some more “normal” August harvesting conditions.

Showers and damp, slow mornings have certainly curtailed progress, which had been extremely swift in the early part of the month.

We were averaging almost 150ha of harvest – be it wheat, spring barley or spring oats – a day for the first fortnight of the month.

See also: Are no-till potatoes a pipe dream?

About the author

David Fuller

David Fuller manages 3,500ha of medium sandy clays for McGregor Farms based at Coldstream, on both sides of the border. Cropping includes wheat, spring barley, winter barley and oilseed rape, spring beans and vining peas. Potatoes are farmed in collaboration with Greenvale AP.

Read more articles by David Fuller

Currently we have 90ha of winter wheat, 77ha of spring barley and 20ha of spring beans to go.

Overall, we have been very pleased with yields and extremely pleased with the moisture of the incoming grain. In most cases, this has needed very little input to get it to target storage moistures.

With harvest dragging its heels a little bit and the soils being extremely dry, the break in the weather has in fact been very welcome.

Although initially the showers were more of an irritation, falling in amounts that barely reduced dust levels, a steady 10mm fell on the morning of 22 August, giving a green light to oilseed rape sowing.

With two drilling rigs going, we are hoping to have all our oilseed rape sown by the end of the month.

It’s been great to see the progress around the country on social media platforms. However, one particular thread that caught my eye was the vilification of a farmer who was showing an application of pre-harvest glyphosate to aid crop desiccation.

Some of the comments from fellow farmers were quite alarming. As I’m sure the commentators all knew, nothing the farmer was doing was illegal or in any way irresponsible.

It was as if this sort of practice was leading to the demise of glyphosate and it was the fault of farmers who used the product as a harvest aid.

Just for the record, we too desiccate all of our combinable crops with glyphosate to aid harvest.

We find that we can harvest earlier in the day and later at night if the crop is desiccated. The grain also dries faster after rain and the straw can be baled in a timely fashion.

Unfortunately, we are not all blessed with endless long harvest days. Although this year has been quite exceptional… so far.