Harvest 2017

[Coltheox]

I know I may be a bit premature (it's a age problem..... ) but having gone on a trawl around South Cambridgeshire over the last couple of days, there is some winter barley which is going off extremely fast, particularly around the Royston chalklands area.

Some of the early sown wheat is also showing the first signs of changing. Oilseed Rape is beginning to go slightly brown, and I reckon some of it will be sprayed off in a couple of weeks, if not sooner.

What's it looking like elsewhere??

[Flintstone]

Barley over at Nuthampstead was cut last week.

[The Pretender]

The wheat is going off here and fast.

[Raggy]

Only the Spring Barley looks green around here.
OSR looks three weeks from glypho at the moment. Winter Barley looking ahead.
Looks a decent year for blackgrass control. But a battle we still need to be fighting.

[Fat Hill]

Most osr round here has been spayed off. Earliest desiccation for 30 plus years.
Winter barley being harvested near the coast off the sand. Plenty of winter barley will be cut in the next 10 days off lighter land, with rape starting in 10'days or so.

Wheat looks shit. Lots of yellow rust, lots flat, lots of take all in second wheat, lots of dead wheat on light land. Some sugarbeet looks ok, but most is "hens and chickens" which will lead to big losses at harvest.

500 acres or so of forage rye for local AD plants has been cut before the rain. Nothing special. It only seems to be grown by Shyte farmers with black grass problems, and no proper rotation. Rum owd do

[Raggy]

Still wont turn a wheel for another two weeks. Into some Barley later today with some Glypho.

[Bloomers]

On my travels the last couple of days have seen a few fields of barley that would probably go with a bit of sun but think most stuff is a couple of weeks off yet.

[NQIT]

Saw first winter barley being cut yesterday. Usually reckon on 20th around here, so very early. Don't know yield but plenty of straw in the swath. First OSR I sprayed off will be ready this weekend. Could all be over by mid August!

[Raggy]

My margins have just improved nicely. I put 100 acres of Barley Straw into local auction. Tonight it reached £39/acre. I'm happy with that.

[Coltheox]

Saw what looked like an old Massey combine slugging its way through some oilseed rape this afternoon near Willingham.

[NQIT]

Been on 2 farms today that would have had a go at some barley, except most of the staff were on holiday.

[Raggy]

Been on 2 farms today that would have had a go at some barley, except most of the staff were on holiday.

Yes. I'm hoping we don't think about starting for another ten days. Got three nights away at Sunny Silverstone next weekend.

[essexpete]

Most osr round here has been spayed off. Earliest desiccation for 30 plus years.
Winter barley being harvested near the coast off the sand. Plenty of winter barley will be cut in the next 10 days off lighter land, with rape starting in 10'days or so.

Wheat looks shit. Lots of yellow rust, lots flat, lots of take all in second wheat, lots of dead wheat on light land. Some sugarbeet looks ok, but most is "hens and chickens" which will lead to big losses at harvest.

500 acres or so of forage rye for local AD plants has been cut before the rain. Nothing special. It only seems to be grown by Shyte farmers with black grass problems, and no proper rotation. Rum owd do

What do you mean by that?

Combine running on W Barley nr Boreham (Chelmsford) tonight.

[Fat Hill]

Most osr round here has been spayed off. Earliest desiccation for 30 plus years.
Winter barley being harvested near the coast off the sand. Plenty of winter barley will be cut in the next 10 days off lighter land, with rape starting in 10'days or so.

Wheat looks shit. Lots of yellow rust, lots flat, lots of take all in second wheat, lots of dead wheat on light land. Some sugarbeet looks ok, but most is "hens and chickens" which will lead to big losses at harvest.

500 acres or so of forage rye for local AD plants has been cut before the rain. Nothing special. It only seems to be grown by Shyte farmers with black grass problems, and no proper rotation. Rum owd do

What do you mean by that?

Combine running on W Barley nr Boreham (Chelmsford) tonight.

Hens and chickens- that's when some of the beet finds moisture and gets ahead, whilst the rest of the field sits in dust and starts growing when a decent rain arrives. The big beet are mixed in with small beet which makes setting the beet harvester very difficult. Big beet get over topped, and you end up with too much top on the small beet, plus lots of beet left in the field

Today, 2 big green machines cutting w barley up the road from me. Cut 50 acres yesdee, and another 150 acres today. They'll soon have harvest done, as 250 acres of the farm was in forage rye, 400 or so in winter barley, fair bit of osr. Wheats going off very fast too

[Raggy]

Got my first (reliable) report on harvest so far today.
3.7t/ha for OSR off light Hampshire land. Compared to around 3.0t/ha last year.
The OSR I drove through with the sprayer today ought to be in that 3.7 region. Hopefully above.