weblet375 Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 just wondered what people /farmers thourght about the coming harvest.be intresting to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dm434 Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 very very wet . nothing but clarts. my lawn mower is leaving black wheel marks so lord knows what tractors n trailers will make. a good tow chain will be a popular choice this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris.watson Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 well, on our farm in this part of essex everything is pointing to a bumper harvest of our winter barley, rape, winter wheat with the only average looking crop being the spring barley[it hasnt had enough sun on its back]. after last years drought our wheat only did 2.7 ton an acre but this year it looks as if it might be nearer 4 ton acre. the only worry with the wheat is that the proteins might be down a bit, this due to a thick crop and lack of photosythesis on the leaves due to septoria. the price of all crops is moving very fast in the right direction, so i hope no-one has sold to much forward for £140 a ton.wheat could well hover around the £200 mark a ton for a while due to the weather in other countries[drought and winter kill]. the biggest worry is the weather. even if it does dry up a bit over the harvest period, damage to soil structure will catasrophic and all the benefits from last autumn will be lost. we have a drier and have seen wet harvests before, so we will just have to make the best of it. one thing that cheers me up a little during a wet harvest is the big local contractors, thirsty for acres,paying massive rents, struggling to get round 4000 acres with a super charged single lexion combine. i dont know how they sleep at night during the harvest period, but they always seem to get there in the end!year 2000,2004,2008 and now 2012 were all wet summers here, and it seems that the cycle is a bad one every 4 years. they say that the jet stream is keeping the good weather away. the jet stream is 50,000 feet up, and the rain clouds come over at about 200 feet up, so work that one out.harvest could be very long and drawn out this year, with the norm of long hours and frustration, so to everybody on here that works on the land, GOOD LUCK, and remember, COME HOME SAFE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Well wet at the minute. Won't be too bad (hopefully) if the weather takes up. Chris makes a very good point though. Theres no point taking stupid risks, a ton of wheat isn't worth the same as a broken combine or worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerrabbit Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 There is the potential for bumper crops and heavy yeilds this year providing that we get suitable weather in which to harvest these crops. At the moment the potato crop is suffering badly with the crop rotting in the ground, the price here per 20kg bag was £3 a couple of weeks ago, today it's £20 a bag. Winter cerials are now turnibg fast but if they can't be harvested because of the wet then the crop will start to sprout out and/or start to lay. Soft fruit has suffered particularly badly with local 'pick your own' growers just telling people who venture out to them to just help themselves, they would sooner give it away than see the crop just spoil. There is still a lot of grass left to be cut here around Dartmoor which should be being cut now for hay, first cut pit and bale silage has in the main been taken off but the grass that should be being cut now is rotting in the bottom and even if it does dry up it will have to be down for a lot longer to allow the ground and the grass to dry out, we never usually gut grass when the ground is wet as it always drys better standing.. Things are getting serious now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roberthenning Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Its been warm and wet here in Northern Ireland, mainly grass and its growing well. The spring barley is doing well, should give a good enough yield The winter barley is poor, was in late and in wet, patchy enough in places The fodder beat in in ideal conditions is poorer than we would like, lots of weeds and hard to spray as it rains every day We have no other crops in so not sure how they re doing. Dread to think how the spud men are coping. Was talking to my friend in Aberdeenshire and he was commenting how poor there cereals were as its been very cold along with the rain up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrol Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Out in France at the moment and if the speed of combining is a measure of yield then they are also having some bumper crops out here. Saw a CR980 with a 25ft header crawling thru a wheat field yesterday and a AB old NH 8070 barely moving in a field next door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordantaylor Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 extremely dragged out, ive seen multiple fields of barley ready for harvest between shropshire and buckinghamshire but its just too wet to get combines out to the fields. quite a few fields of rape are what i would say about a week off but ive spoken to some lads at velcourt farms and they dont want to spray the rape off yet as they are not sure if they will be able to combine them when they are ready. as for the straw crops available from wheat and barley this year it looks like there will plenty of bales available. and i think we will keep away from the potato crops for now. suckleys have already loast around 200 acres worth due to rivers overflowing and just washing crops away. and a few farms are trying to lift spuds already to save more rotting I myself have got around 250 tonnes of muck to spread over the coming weeks aswell as a full slurry store that i need to get to very soon, the boss said we might have to hire in a bigger tanker or an umbilical setup to get it down faster as the rain will just cause it to overflow soon. we have still got 2nd cut to get mowed and picked up but calnt see it being done anytime soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 why is rain water in the slurry pond? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordantaylor Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 why is rain water in the slurry pond? Its in the slurry tower, we only have a small pump pumping out the rainwater but it not clearing it fast enough and the sudden downpours we keep having are just filling the tower up again, too much liquid and nowhere for it to go. we dot want to spread loads of slurry on the fields as the rain is washing it straight off again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Barley is ripening fast round us, some of the light land boys might be able to have a go if we get a dry few days. Still wet in places but maybe not as wet as it could be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Its in the slurry tower, we only have a small pump pumping out the rainwater but it not clearing it fast enough and the sudden downpours we keep having are just filling the tower up again, too much liquid and nowhere for it to go. we dot want to spread loads of slurry on the fields as the rain is washing it straight off again Same happened here,pain in the bum hey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Ferguson Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Spoke to a farmer in Southern Ireland yesterday and it's so wet the barley is growing fast, tall and straggly - won't be good for much. Getting on the fields is a problem too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11johndeereman Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 we got the silage done last sunday with the pottinger wagons they cutted a bottom of a wet field the wagons marked it but the father was saying if it was a trailer like a redrock or kane she'd be gone into the ground!we got it all covered and before the rain but still we have a few fields to cut yet for bales Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 be intresting to see results, crops look gopod and thick this way, but some still seem a bit green, that said, i see chris lockwood has just posted pics on facebook of a class dommy at work up suffolk way, so its that time of year again for some Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMB Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 My local farmer is struggling to find 4 dry days to mow/row/bale. Looks like it's going to be the three of us on it this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Gough Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 (edited) My local farmer is struggling to find 4 dry days to mow/row/bale. Same here Chris and I guess the same in many other places. Lets hope we get some decent sunny spells soon. Edited July 15, 2012 by Tommy Gough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 We took some silage n 3 dry days a couple of weeks ago, and we are glad we did the field has stood water ever since Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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