A Wiltshire grower is happy with how well his winter wheat harvest has started, after cutting the first crops on the farm’s lower-grade land.

Robin Aird, farms and estate manager at Charlton Park Estate, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, cut 30ha of his 250ha of winter wheat on Tuesday (30 July), after moisture levels were too high on Monday.

He says, “we are running over budget, which is amazing”, and he will be happy if they end up on budget, after the extremely testing season.

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After cutting a few fields of Extase on grade 3 land, he is averaging over 9t/ha, with specific weights at 79–80kg/hl and moistures between 14.8 and 16.5%.

The wet autumn and winter led to 70ha of the winter wheat being patchy – it was overseeded in January and eventually got growing in April, but thistles have filled some of the gaps.

Next to face the combine after the winter wheat is 310-320ha of Ladum spring wheat.

© Robin Aird

Rye

He has forage harvested 250ha of Pluralis and Ovid hybrid rye, which came out above budget at 34t/ha.

Part of this area has been drilled with a wild bird mix for the Sustainable Farming Initiative and now has three to four true leaves.

The final crop to be harvested will be maize, which is grown instead of oilseed rape, for the AD plant. He describes his crop this year as, “very variable with horrific weed control.”

Next season

For the coming season, while the wet winter will tempt some growers to drill earlier,  Robin is sticking with his later drilling approach.

The winter wheat will follow maize, which is harvested in September. However, Robin intends to hold off drilling the wheat until mid-October and beyond to reduce the blackgrass pressure as much as possible.