Hertfordshire arable farmer Eveey Hunter made a start on Skyfall winter wheat harvest at the family farm on Wednesday, with initial yields coming in at 8.5t/ha.

With regular rain showers falling for the past few weeks, the weather finally managed to stay dry for a day and 60ha was cut at a good specific weight of 75kg/hl.

Despite this, moisture levels remained relatively high at 20%, dipping down to 16% as the day went on.

See also: Harvest 2021: Cornish yields 1t/ha down after septoria storm

Weather woes

“We cut it wetter than we would have liked, but we had to get cracking on the wheats before the rain started to affect crop quality.

“We just couldn’t spend another day with the combine parked up. While the weather was dry we went for it, but we’ve had to have the dryer running all day and night,” said Miss Hunter.

A total of 900ha of wheat were planted from 19 October onwards at Pursley Farm, near Saint Albans, where Ms Hunter and her family farm 1,500ha of combinable crops under the JS Hunter and Sons partnership.

© Georgia Hunter

Meanwhile, on the farm, harvest of oilseed rape, winter barley and winter oats has been completed, with average yields of 3.5t/ha, 6.5t/ha and 6.5t/ha, respectively.

“Oilseed rape looked great all year and we thankfully didn’t experience any problems with flea beetle or slugs,” reported Miss Hunter.

But with the majority of the farm down to winter wheat this season, rapeseed will not be part of next year’s cropping plans since the later wheat harvest leaves no opportunity for the early establishment of OSR.

© Georgia Hunter

Linseed challenges

Acting as an alternative break crop, winter linseed was planted for the first time on the farm after a 10-year break.

The crop established well and looked quite the part in May during the flowering period, but after gusty winds and strong rain storms caused the crop to lodge, harvest was made all the more challenging.

With sunshine – the secret to success for cutting linseed – in short supply, combining was a real struggle. Consequently, linseed won’t be grown again next year and winter barely will make up the shortfall instead.