By Guy Smith

It’s that time of year when I wish for lazier neighbours. I’m sure some of them drive their combines late into the night at harvest time for the sole purpose of making me feel that I shouldn’t be in bed. That distant hum of whirring concaves and chattering reels can keep me awake in the small hours worrying that someone knows something I don’t about unfriendly harvest weather forecasts.

Most of my neighbours have already stolen the march on me this year by getting their crops in the ground in reasonable order last autumn in late September before the weather broke. Several weeks later I was to be found messing around in mud in late October. At the time I thought I was being clever waiting for more blackgrass to chit but in hindsight I still got the blackgrass along with terrible seedbeds.

Now, having had a droughty spring, I suspect those poor seedbeds, along with the compaction behind the drill wheel, will cause a significant yield penalty. These late drilled crops also mean the torture of seeing your neighbour out with the combine in perfect harvest weather while mine sits in the shed waiting for those last green ears to ripen off. Not for the first time I’m resisting the dark thoughts of wishing terminal breakdowns on the happy harvesters over the hedge.

My guess is harvest 2022 might be a mixed bag, not just for me but also nationally. For once I’m not the only one who was wishing for more rain through the spring. In my dry corner of northeast Essex, the three spring months of April, May and June didn’t see many trips to the rain gauge. In that key period for precipitation, I totalled up a rather miserly three inches of rain when closer to six would be our average.

That old adage that it’s ‘a dripping June that keeps a farm in tune’ struck a note of rather unharmonious discord as flag leaves started to roll and wheat ears started to senesce prematurely on the lighter land. While that three inches of rain in the second quarter of 2022 probably kept the crops on heavier land happy amongst the blackgrass, it wasn’t enough moisture elsewhere to help things meet their potential.

I note a few pundits had forecasted a large, above average UK wheat harvest of 15M tonnes for harvest 2022, easily surpassing the five-year average. I find that surprising for two reasons. Firstly, the fact is the spring has been relatively dry in the cereal growing counties, but also it assumes there was no significant reduction in fertiliser use due to the huge price rises. I can’t believe I was the only one dialling down the spinner calibration as I came off the phone after speaking to my merchant about astronomic prices. But then again, I’m reminded that reducing fertiliser use by 20% only has a 5% impact on yield.

It seems there will be plenty to think about this summer as I enjoy the days of solitary confinement in the combine cab. I’ll be keeping the radio tuned into pop frivolity because the bad fairy seems to have her grip on the news stations. Nonetheless, I’ll wish you a fruitful and easy harvest. We could all do with some good news.

This article was taken from the latest issue of CPM. For more articles like this, subscribe here.