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We had been fortunate in missing the wretched showers until Sunday evening, which allowed us to make progress with the wheat harvest. But with 160mm of rainfall since mid-July, the fields have become wet.
So much so, that if we were using a wheeled combine – as opposed to tracks – I’d say we’d have been stuck more than once. It’s a huge turnaround from the superb field conditions of the last 15 months.
Wheat yields
The wheat variety Bennington has sprouted to a degree, but I think it has been halted by the cooler nights of late, as quality is only OK. But I dislike varieties that are potential sprouters, so I may not plant it again. To date, we’ve only harvested Bennington as a continuous wheat full of take-all yielding 3.9t/ac at 20% which, in the circumstances, was very satisfactory. It’s more than I deserve.
The variety Costello has become a reliable stalwart, if not always the highest yielding. What Costello we’ve harvested so far, which is only a small area of first wheat, is yielding a very rewarding 4.88t/ac at 20% moisture. If we get some decent harvest weather, this yield should be upheld.
Lodging
However, it’s been a long time since we had as much lodging as we have this year. A lot of the wheat headlands, in particular, are quite flat. I’m going to have to look at the border disc setting on the Bogballe spreader as the lodging is quite symmetrical. It hasn’t been a problem before, but the heavy deluges over the past month have made it one.
I’ve fitted crop lifters to the combine header, but lifters are one of those things you either swear by or swear at and I’m in the latter camp. It’s easy enough to be down a trailer load of wheat on a lodged headland, which takes the gloss off the yield.
The wheat variety Graham seems a little more prone to lodging, but it’s yielding very nicely. A 43.5ac field of first wheat Graham yielded a store-filling 221.5t of wheat at 20%, which works out at 5.09t/ac. At a risk of counting chickens, this yield could be surpassed by what’s to come.
Reporting individual field yields is a bit pointless, as it’s the overall average yield that counts and this is a while away yet.
Perhaps I’m getting a little carried away. However, the smash and grab weather means baling straw is difficult and we’ve still some winter barley straw to bale. I’ve chopped a couple of fields of wheaten straw, but with the heavy crops, it’s too much to incorporate without ploughing.
Post-harvest
That brings me conveniently around to post-harvest cultivations. We’ve none done so far because the soil is too wet, but there is a slight upside. Weeds, cereals and shed oilseed rape will germinate on the wet soil surface without cultivation. Sterile brome needs to be left on the surface for a month to break dormancy and a blanket of chopped straw is ideal.
While nobody ever seems to get too excited about a straw/stubble rake, I think one would be useful for spreading the chopped straw, cultural control of slugs and creating a micro-tilth for weed germination. I’d like to try a 6m wide one first before writing a cheque.
But if this frustrating weather continues for much longer, I fear a plough will be the next machine I’ll be looking for. All these wet and straw-strewn lodged headlands will be awful drill-blocking material.
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