Suffolk grower Jes Hansen reckons he could be one of the first in the UK to start his oilseed rape harvest this season.

Mr Hansen contract farms the Tyneholme Estate, which is owned by Antas, near Halesworth, Suffolk, in eastern England.

He and his team started harvesting their high erucic acid rapeseed (Hear) crop on Friday 28 June – two weeks earlier than normal.

The crop was drilled early last year on the 23 July, following a crop of red fescue grass seed.

See also: Lowest cereals and OSR areas planted in over 20 years

Operating two Case IH Axial-Flow 8250 combines, the team dodged the showers and cut 300ha of OSR by Monday night (8 July). About 50ha is still left to be cut.

Mr Hansen, whose contract farming company is also called Tyneholme Estate, admits yields have been “slightly disappointing” at about 3.5t/ha, below the 4t/ha they were expecting and below the five-year average of just under 4t/ha.

The Hear oilseed rape is grown on contract for Frontier Agriculture, fetching £700/t.

Mr Hansen dries it first before it is collected from the farm by Frontier. Moisture content has been “on the high side” at 10-12%, but the crop is dried at the farm before collection.

However, Mr Hansen said overall his OSR harvest has been going very well.

“It’s the first time we’ve been harvesting a Hear variety and it went super easy,” he said.

“It has been such a pleasure and easy to combine. Everything was standing up and even though it wasn’t sprayed off apart from the headlands, it really did combine well.

“Time is of the essence when you are combining high-risk crops, which is why we got to work as soon as the opportunity arose.”

Barley pending

Antas Ltd is one the largest grass seed growers in the UK, growing about 200ha. By Tuesday 9 July, the team had also cut 7ha of grass seed.

The team have more grass seed to cut, followed by 110ha of winter barley, which they are due to start harvesting at the weekend.

NFU Combinable Crops Board chairman Jamie Burrows said he was impressed by Mr Hansen’s early harvest efforts.

Mr Burrows said he was not aware of other growers who had already harvested oilseed rape but said some in Sussex, Surrey and Hertfordshire were preparing to start around now, weather permitting.

The barley harvest is also expected to get under way in the next few days, he added.