Disappointing signs for harvest
Harvest is turning out as predicted and is rather disappointing.
Winter barley yields were dismal, winter wheat, where it survived the deluge, is very variable with yields on pre deluge sown wheat coming in at 3.5 tonne-plus which isn’t too bad, but there aren’t enough acres of it.
Later sown wheat is very variable yielding from two tonne per acre upwards. Spring barley is yet to harvest.
The one shining light is Oil Seed Rape which yielded from 1.5 tonne up to two tonne to the acre, which is good. But what about prices? Well, bearing in mind that we are looking at the smallest harvest at circa 10 million tonnes (the smallest since 1976 I am told) you would think that the sky is the limit, but regrettably the world crop is looking good so at time of writing the prices are slipping and are well in the 160s.
One or two varieties of wheat are going short, particularly Exctase, so get some booked if you haven’t already. Keep your fingers crossed and I hope that when drilling starts the weather is kind, as the wise men of Shropshire say “don’t wait for September 22nd and ignore your agronomist”
David Roberts is from G O Davies (Westbury) Ltd, a privately-owned grain merchant operating across Wales and the West Midlands.
