Richard Kane has had a bad spell of weather at Broglasgow House, Myroe, Londonderry, so has only just started combining oilseed rape today (13 August).

“We’ve had 50-60mm of rain over the past 10 days, and there’s been very little cut in the area,” he said. “Although the winter barley looks okay, the spring barley is starting to go down.”

Having only started combining at lunchtime, it was a bit early to tell how the oilseed rape was performing, although initial indications were good, said Mr Kane.

“It’s probably my best field, and it’s running at 4.5t/ha and 12-14% moisture. It’s nice and even and looks quite well,” he added.

Although he had 57ha of rapeseed to cut, only about half was ripe, so Mr Kane expected to move into winter barley next week.

“It’s forecast to rain heavily tomorrow and Saturday, so we’re not going to get much done this week.”

Winter wheat was still at least three weeks away. “The 57ha that survived the winter is looking well, but we lost 20ha this winter and 100ha the previous year – it would be nice if we could get this harvest and autumn drilling done easily.”

Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Cracker
Yield: 4.5t/ha