Cereals News

Wheat growers are being urged to manage risk by taking on board the lessons of the challenging 2023/24 season when making this autumn’s drilling and variety decisions. 

Harvest 2024 was undeniably an interesting but also challenging time for UK farmers. For some of them, like Cambridgeshire farmer Stephen Briggs, harvest had to be put on hold due to equipment theft, but others call the season very “straightforward”. 

As harvest is well underway, there are several lessons starting to emerge to explain the variability in wheat yields, said Hutchinsons technical support manager. 

Martin Lishman provides five key areas to focus on, to improve your post-harvest practices.

With some colour sorters struggling to identify modern grass ergot, it’s time for everyone to find a solution to this problem.

The weather upset many cropping plans in 2023/24, with growers understandably keen to get back on track this autumn. However, as farm support shifts further towards crop-specific measures within the SFI, now is an ideal time to review rotation planning, Hutchinsons experts advise.

Warm and dry weather has supported harvest progress over the past fortnight and helped the progression of wheat, spring barley and spring oat crops towards harvest, the latest harvest progress report for 2024 confirms. 

Harvest is on hold at the farm after organised criminals broke into a locked grain shed to steal the loader, bypassing security measures.

A project that brings trials of precision-bred cereal crops onto commercial farms in Europe is now underway, researchers confirm.

Richard Langton said contractors came in without prior warning and dug two holes in the field, despite being asked to wait until the spring barley had been harvested.

Analysis of over 800 of this year’s first cut silage samples shows a huge difference in the quality of silages harvested early (March, April and May) and those harvested later (June onwards), said feed supplier ForFarmers. 

Two farms share their experience of harvesting after record-breaking rainfall this year, with one moving from wheat to beans, and another putting a field into regen ag.