Despite a lack of rainfall, the first bean yields are coming off well.
Passing showers in Cambridgeshire have led to a stop-start beginning to the wheat and bean harvest for grower and contractor Matt Redman.
He says: “Compared to last year, we’re pleased with how beans are running so far. We’ve started on the first 10ha of Tundra and we are getting 4.3t/ha for the field we have done at 14.8% moisture. I’m hoping the yield will go up a bit because this field was cut a bit earlier.”
Meanwhile, for wheat November drilled Skyfall is yielding around 9.4t/ha.
He adds: “It’s been quite an easy growing season compared to last year. Last year we struggled with drilling because we had a wet autumn and then obviously a very wet spring, so everything was spring cropped and much later.
"This year has been pretty easy but too dry. We haven’t had the rainfall to top up the reserves in the soil before we went into the dry period.”