UK: Encouraging winter barley harvest is progressing well
Farmers Guardian -- The winter barley harvesting is going well in the South and Midlands with up to 40 per cent of the national crop now cut, according to Berkshire-based senior consultant, Susan Twining, ADAS.
“There was limited combining activity until the middle of last week, but the dry weather has seen growers in the south making good progress with winter barley,” she said, adding that if the weather held out, the winter barley crop would be ‘pretty much’ cleared by the end of this weekend in southern and Midland areas.
The dry weather has also meant that crops were coming in below 16 per cent moisture, which was keeping drying costs down, she said.
An early indication on yields shows a crop that is average to just above average this year.
“The five-year average for winter barley yields in the South East has been 6.2tonnes/hectare and most yields so far this summer have exceeded that at 6.5 to 7t/ha.”
Further north progress is more limited, with the bulk of the winter barley harvest just beginning this weekend in areas such as the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds.
“There was limited combining activity until the middle of last week, but the dry weather has seen growers in the south making good progress with winter barley,” she said, adding that if the weather held out, the winter barley crop would be ‘pretty much’ cleared by the end of this weekend in southern and Midland areas.
The dry weather has also meant that crops were coming in below 16 per cent moisture, which was keeping drying costs down, she said.
An early indication on yields shows a crop that is average to just above average this year.
“The five-year average for winter barley yields in the South East has been 6.2tonnes/hectare and most yields so far this summer have exceeded that at 6.5 to 7t/ha.”
Further north progress is more limited, with the bulk of the winter barley harvest just beginning this weekend in areas such as the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds.