We have never had a week quite like the last seven days. All the winter barley is totally finished, straw baled, sold and mostly gone from the field.

For the first time ever we have harvested the oilseed rape in July, less than a fortnight after dessication. So how did we do?

The winter barley was a text book example of a research project. We had two fields of Cassia, one following winter wheat and one following oilseed rape. Both were sown in good conditions last September and both got the same treatment of fertiliser and plant protection products.

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I would have expected the crop after oilseed rape to perform better given that the first crop after wheat would be expected to suffer to some extent from Take-all, while oilseed rape should be the ideal entry point for a high yield.

While the two crops performed in that order, the crop following oilseed rape did about 3.85 tonnes/ac at less than 16% moisture while the crop following the wheat struggled to reach 3.5 tonnes/ac at a similar moisture. The gap was not as large as I expected.

However the third winter barley was Orcade, another two-row variety. This followed oats and did over 4.1 tonnes/ac.

The end conclusion – the long-standing Cassia as a variety confirmed what the Department trials told us a few weeks ago - that it is becoming outclassed and presumably should not be grown without a specific contract.

We also learned what we had long been told that oats is an excellent break crop.

At this stage, the provisional moistures are 15%-16%. Despite the low moistures in the oilseed rape, there is no bonus for having material below 9%. The oilseed rape just fell short of 2 tonnes/ac at a moisture of less than 8%, our lowest ever. It may have suffered from early heat induced ripening and some uneven spots in the fields.

Corporation scheme

We withdrew the rape straw from the incorporation scheme as our neighbour with a solid fuel boiler confirmed his decision to buy it and bale it himself.

The next crops ripening quickly are the wheats. If this weather lasts another week, it will do a lot while the normally late maturing beans have already got plump pods – in July!

Our main quandary at this stage is whether or not to still aim to take a second cut of silage or to graze the ground. At this stage, the grass is just standing still but it is not burning off and we are continuing to move the cattle that are out to fresh grazing each day, but we have more cattle in on full feed than normal and we have postponed any thought of buying in.