Wheat concerns - but crop should still be reasonable

THIS year’s cereal harvest is now a week to 10 days behind normal and, with showery weather set to continue into the weekend, growers are becoming increasingly concerned about the quality of wheat crops.

With 90 per cent of the winter barley and oilseed rape cleared in the east, west and south of England, the main concern for many growers now is over wheat sprouting, said Colin Button, national seeds manager, Hutchinsons.

“Wheat crops from Lincolnshire northwards are only just coming fit, so if it turns dry next week, crops should still be fine, but in East Anglia and central England crops have been ready for longer and that’s where the concern is,” said Mr Button.

Barely any wheat had been touched until the beginning of the week, though a lot of growers capitalised on Monday’s dry weather with many combines rolling late into the night.

Showery weather

In Kent, wheat was coming off at 20 per cent moisture on Monday, ‘just to get the crop in’, while some early harvested Solstice off the Fens had achieved over 12 tonnes/hectare and good quality results.

The showery weather had not yet impacted on wheat quality, said Simon Ingle, head of milling wheat, Grainfarmers.

“Hagbergs are considerably over the 250-mark, bushels are over 76kg/hl, but moistures are higher and proteins are variable as a result of higher yields,” said Mr Ingle, who said Cordiale and Solstice had done 10 tonnes per hectare.

“To the west of the A1 very little wheat has been cut, but there are no worries over quality yet as the crop is only just coming ripe and we haven’t got the high temperatures that can spoil wheat.”

He believed over 90 per cent of the winter barley was cut in England, along with 30 to 40 per cent of spring barley, 60 to 70 per cent of oilseed rape and just 5 per cent of winter wheat.

North Yorkshire agronomist, Patrick Stephenson, agreed that Hagbergs should not yet have been knocked.

“The wheat is barely ripe and although it won’t be the best quality, it should still be a reasonable crop if we get the weather to harvest it.”

However, the oilseed rape, was ‘all over the shop’ according to Mr Stephenson, with 40 per cent of the crop picked up so far and yields varying from 1 tonne to over 2 tonne/acre.