An exceptionally early start to the 2023 cereal harvest has seen combines moving into winter barley across the south of the country.
So far, reports of yields are steady at about 3.5t/ac and over. Reports suggest that while the harvest date might be record early, yields are unlikely to break records as the difficult autumn sowing season and late spring impacted on crops.
There are reports of between 3.5t/ac and 4.1t/ac. The majority of bushel or KPH levels so far have been reported between 65 and 68.
Moisture contents have been reported from 17% and above, with some cutting above 20%, possibly afraid of the rain that was in the forecast. Rain early this week put a stop to work in many places.
Crops sown later in the season are yet to ripen and many of the poorer crops are in this slot.
However, so far, yields are higher than expected for many.
Often early harvest is associated with poor performance, but developments in varieties in recent years have brought many early maturing varieties on to the scene and this is also likely to have contributed to the early harvest date.
Tolerance
Some new varieties have a tolerance to barley yellow dwarf virus, which can reduce the risk of virus from early sowing and so many farmers plant earlier with these varieties, which also contributes to the earlier cutting date.
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