UK: Yields of early-cut winter barley looking encouraging

The stop-start harvest is set to pick up speed this week in the UK as showers make way for sunshine with yields of early-cut winter barley looking encouraging, AllAboutFeed reported on August, 1.

Rain halted many combines early this week with winter barley crops harvested showing yields averaging around a respectable 7.5t/ha.

With only about 5% of the winter barley crop cut, early reports point to a harvest of better yields than expected considering the poor state of crops earlier this year.

Grain traders say with drier weather forecast later this week and into the weekend, the winter barley harvest could soon really get under way across most of England.

Although with winter wheat some way off harvest, and a lot of spring barley and rapeseed being sown they warned that combines could keep rolling well into September.

Those crops cut so far have largely been sown early and established well before the wet and cold winter and the grains had largely filled before the summer heatwave.

02 August, 2013