Update September 1
More than half of the harvest was complete by the end of August and with a good forecast wheat and spring barley are likely to be finished in most of England and Wales by the end of this week.
Drying costs have been very high for oilseed rape, winter barley and the wheat and spring barley cut so far, typically in the £10/15 per tonne range where necessary.
Sprouting had become widespread in southern parts of the UK by the weekend, but most milling and the majority of malting crops will have been harvested in time to preserve quality. Wheat markets were strengthening slightly at the end of August with new data from the IGC reducing production estimates and slightly increasing consumption. Global stocks are put at around 28% of consumption.
With thanks to the HGCA.
Update August 27
Much slower progress this week with showers and storms disrupting harvest up and down the country and allowing only one or two days cutting at best, and no progress for those who have caught repeated bursts of rain.
Almost all oilseed rape and around half the wheat and barley crops in England and Wales have been cut, with most farmers having completed at least some of the crop and a few who avoided rain, and extended combining by using grain driers, completed harvest this week. Parts of the South West have suffered prolonged wet weather, with only four dry days in August and nothing cut between the 16th and 27th. Wheat in Cornwall is beginning to sprout.
Most winter malting barley, a good deal of spring barley and winter milling wheat is now in stores, quality reported to be good and yields holding up despite the unusual spring and early summer conditions leading to expectations of poor crops by some. Mycotoxin results so far (one week of testing) have been very low, in line with HGCA risk assessment results and CropMonitor surveys.
Grain drying has featured nationally this harvest with most farmers needing to spend time and money to dry a significant proportion of their crops before storage, often at over 20% and very few days where grain was at below 15% and could be sent straight to store. More recent rainfall has led to lodging of oat crops and may threaten remaining spring barley, wheat is very short stemmed this year after a cold dry spring and is proving very resilient.
Markets:
November Prices remain volatile around just around the £150/t, milling premiums are strengthening partly as a result of export potential for UK crop after difficulties in other northern European wheat producing regions. Ukraine continues to put off decisions about wheat export quotas, but is still exporting only lower grades of feed wheat, keeping breadmaking stocks for the domestic market.
Fertiliser:
We hear price lists are currently withdrawn for UK manufactured N, and P is rising in price, said to be linked to improved cereal prices globally. With poorer quality straw now, it is worth calculating its value before making a decision on what to do with it: HGCA, Cereal straw - use, incorporate or sell?
HGCA/ADAS harvest summary can be found here
Update August 12
This week's update comes from the HGCA.
Progress this week has been hampered by the weather with patchy showers disrupting the harvest in most regions.
Further North and West, where showers were more frequent, harvest was reduced to just a few hours on up to three days. At the other end of the scale, progress in the South East and East Midlands was possible on up to six days, with long hours possible on two or three.
Despite the rain, quality of all crops remains good with no major concerns over mycotoxins. Drying has been required on most samples in the North, while further South only samples harvested early in the day required a small amount of drying.
Soil type continues to influence yields with heavy land out performing light, leading to variable yields.
Headlines
- Winter barley – Almost 85% UK area harvested. Yields below average and variable. Quality remains good.
- Winter oilseed rape – Almost 85% of UK area harvested. Yields above average, although variable.
- Wheat – Almost 15% UK area harvested. Yields remain below average and variable dependent on soil type. All milling samples have Hagberg falling numbers above 250 seconds.
- Spring barley – Just over 5% UK area harvested. Yields below average, with light land performing poorly. Quality remains good.
Update August 4
Harvest is progressing at a steady pace partly as a result of the showery weather, partly where crops are not fully ripe and moisture levels have not come down to levels that allow efficient harvest operations.
Winter barley is still being cut with reasonable yields and good quality reported. Some have moved on to oilseed rape to find better than feared yields and good oil content where crops held on in the dry. Oats have yielded better than feared and quality has also held up.
A relatively small amount of second wheat has been cut, on drier fields, with below average yields so far but that may well improve as combines move into better crops during August. Quality thus far is reasonable to good, from earliest analysis results.
Farmers in westernmost parts of the UK have again experienced a wet week and where harvest has been possible large drying costs were incurred.
Get more crops news from the NFU here.
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Update July 26
Harvest activity has been steady after rain disrupted most regions for some of this week.
Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and North West England have suffered from frequent rainfall and made little or no progress. However, the main arable areas in the South and East of the country have now largely finished winter barley and are moving to cut earliest crops of oilseed rape, with odd fields of wheat cut where light soils have been more drought affected.
Barley yields have been highly variable, even within fields, though quality is reported as good.
With better weather forecast later this week farmers will be hoping to complete winter-sown barley and move further into oilseed rape crops. As we move to the early part of August, attention will focus on wheat. Farmers will hope to avoid the forecast showers.
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