This Years Harvest Look To Be Well Below Average

[marsh man]

Reading in the farming section of the E D P yesterday it was stating this years harvest will be the worst for many years , the Peas were 50% down , Winter Wheat and Barleys at least 25% down , straw is well down as well , the late rain we had just before the harvest started was a life saver for some and to late for others .

This coming week they will be starting on the Spring crops and hopefully they will be a bit better , the only good thing about all the dry and hot weather is they don't need to use the drier. 

How is it around your way ?

[B725]

Hardly anything been cut yet including oilseed rape.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, interesting MM, my friends farm with barley is down by 25/30 percent, about 400 acres on barley usually fills the dryer barn but will only be 3/4 this year, quite a loss in £s

 

[oldypigeonpopper]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

Reading in the farming section of the E D P yesterday it was stating this years harvest will be the worst for many years , the Peas were 50% down , Winter Wheat and Barleys at least 25% down , straw is well down as well , the late rain we had just before the harvest started was a life saver for some and to late for others .

This coming week they will be starting on the Spring crops and hopefully they will be a bit better , the only good thing about all the dry and hot weather is they don't need to use the drier. 

How is it around your way ?

Hello, what type of Dryer do they have?

[7daysinaweek]

Hi MM

I had posted up a similar story in a previous thread, the farmer on one of my permissions said he was looking at a 50% yield at best and if I recall, he said the only year like it was around 1975 for such a poor rainfall. Reports of poor numbers around my way at present.

[Walker570]

..... and yet the Maize crops around here look brilliant.  Perhaps instead of letting those crops rot to produce methane they should let them ripen and harvest the seed and bale the tops.

Had friend who could not cut his maize last season because of the ground being like a bog, then harvested the seed, treated it and clamped it in the silage pit and is feeding his cows on it to this day.   Better than producing lectricity other than the payments for doing that are better.

[Catamong]

Yields are well down in these parts too, the Rape has been a complete disaster for the 2 Farmers in the area still growing it, one has decided to pack in growing Rape and is switching to Linseed instead, I have yet to speak to the other Farmer to see if he's giving up on Rape as well.

The only Maize grown in these parts is in cover strips, ours went in so late, it'll only be waist high by October 1st..!😧

There is an upside to low yields that Farmers rarely mention, in that the price of what they do sell on is usually higher than in years with a bumper harvest.

Cat.😎

[mossy835]

down here crops were down not very good, as for the pigeons not any better no big bags of pigeons,not like other years, the most im getting in one outing is 10.thats on rape wheat stubble,and barley.will it get better i dont know. just had 2 fields of oats cut yesterday,will have a go at that tuesday.i am waiting for it to be baled.

Edited August 9, 2020 by mossy835

[motty]

I think it is hit and miss around here. Some really good crops have been seen, but also some awful ones. I saw one field of rape that I couldn't believe the farmer would bother to put the combine over. I doubt the seed would have covered the diesel cost!

Many of the spring barley crops I have seen look as good as any other year. Hopefully plenty will be scattered on the ground when cut!

[marsh man]

Apart from the Pea stalks all the other combinable crops have had the straw and stalks bailed up as there is a shortage of straw , yesterday they were cutting a Wheat field next door to where we were shooting and there was very little straw coming out of the back , I shot this field about three weeks ago and it was the shortage stems on the Wheat I think I have ever seen , a Pigeon could nigh on land on the soil and just about reach the grain in the ears .

Just to add to there misery , a field of beet I passed this afternoon looked as if the leaves had welded itself to the ground , we really are in dire need of some serious rain .

[kenholland]

it's going to be a showery week , so they say in places , for what that is worth.

[WalkedUp]

One farmer on a permission was saying his winter wheat was a disaster this year. The waterlogged ground over the entire winter killed a lot of the low patches then the drought in April to May killed a lot of the high patches. He redrilled with barley on some of the failed patches in spring and that had done much better. His maize looks good but that’s because the late season weather has been much better that the early season weather. 

[Dave-G]

I can't help but wonder how much things may have improved if shooters were allowed out to do their usual pest control in fresh air during across the board knee-jerk lockdown as the seeds broke through.

[clangerman]

38 minutes ago, Dave-G said:

I can't help but wonder how much things may have improved if shooters were allowed out to do their usual pest control in fresh air during across the board knee-jerk lockdown as the seeds broke through.

i remember saying when anyone turning out for farmers during lockdown was slated this year every seed would count i’m so glad i turned out now 

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, this wet weather will put many farms across UK back a few weeks on harvest I can see still cutting wheat in September, at least there putting in 3 fields of rape this week,👍

Edited August 17, 2020 by oldypigeonpopper

[marsh man]

5 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, this wet weather will put many farms across UK back a few weeks on harvest I can see still cutting wheat in September 

You might well be right , but here in the East most of the harvest is either completed or waiting for some of the Spring Wheat and Barley fields to ripen up a bit , going around the countryside yesterday afternoon I don't think I saw any fields left standing and the only tractors working were pulling up the stubbles for next years crop to go in .

The wet weather was also very isolated around these parts yesterday , we were about 12 miles from Sheringham up the North Norfolk coast and never had a drop of rain and yet they had to close roads due to flooding although we got a good storm about seven o clock last night , now the sun is out and very warm but I don't think it will stay the same throughout the day .

[oldypigeonpopper]

55 minutes ago, marsh man said:

You might well be right , but here in the East most of the harvest is either completed or waiting for some of the Spring Wheat and Barley fields to ripen up a bit , going around the countryside yesterday afternoon I don't think I saw any fields left standing and the only tractors working were pulling up the stubbles for next years crop to go in .

The wet weather was also very isolated around these parts yesterday , we were about 12 miles from Sheringham up the North Norfolk coast and never had a drop of rain and yet they had to close roads due to flooding although we got a good storm about seven o clock last night , now the sun is out and very warm but I don't think it will stay the same throughout the day .

Hello, our weather patterns have changed this last 50 years, I think that is why so many holiday abroad, I predict an Indian summer 🤔