Significant progress has been made in saving the harvest over the last five days. Farmers cut long into the night, often at high moisture levels, to grab crops that had deteriorated from a lot of rain, and in particular the two storms of the last fortnight.
Significant progress has been made in saving the harvest over the last five days.
Farmers cut long into the night, often at high moisture levels, to grab crops that had deteriorated from a lot of rain, and in particular the two storms of the last fortnight.
At this stage, over three-quarters of the harvest nationally has been gathered up. With a decent forecast for the next few days across much of the country, the hope will be that most of what’s left will be cut. The exception is in the northwest, where a lot of showers are forecast.
Ground conditions have been challenging, and wet spots in many fields have been left for a drier time.
Losses are worst close to the eye of the two storms, but head losses and grain shedding are in evidence all over the country. The worst-affected crops have witnessed losses of 20%, but 10% is pretty common at this point.
Yields have held up fairly well, with most farmers hitting 7.5t/ha (3t/ac) in some spring barley crops, but few averaging that.
Quality
Quality has, however, been compromised. Over half of the malting barley being presented to Boortmalt since Sunday, with moisture, protein and fusarium/germination all issues, and that failure rate is steadily rising.
Crops are not weighing well, with farmers reporting trailer loads being a tonne shy of normal.
Spring beans have potential, but remain a couple of weeks from being ready to cut.
Less than two weeks remain to establish cover crops for GLAS, so clearing fields of straw is a priority. With secondary growth and late emerging weeds, most straw needs a little time post-cutting before baling.
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