On Bank Holiday Monday, while outside the rain teemed down, a bold claim in a newspaper from a farmer in East Anglia caught the eye. He thought his grain harvest was fantastic: “The best year ever” – even better than the legendary harvest of 1984.
How had the Marlborough area’s farmers fared? Marlborough News Online contacted four local farmers: one just north-east of the town, one just to the south east at Wootton Rivers, one beyond Burbage and one on to the north-west on the downs who manages several farms. Had their harvests broken records?
The harvest started early during the heat of the short July summer – much earlier than in 2013. The rain of August 2 interrupted it and thereafter days of short but heavy showers kept some combines lying idle in fields.
Three of the four farmers had finished their cereal harvest before Monday’s (August 25) rain – one of them getting in his last field on the Saturday. The fourth farm still had 20 per cent of the wheat and the spring linseed to bring in.
And was it a bumper harvest? James Sheppard at Poulton said his grain harvest to be “just above average – not a record here.” George Hosier of Wexcombe described it as a “good harvest – no records broken”. The Butlers at East Wick had some exceptional yields – especially spring barley and wheat. But oilseed rape was below the five year average.
On the downs, Chris Musgrave judged it to be a “very good” harvest – but not up to the standards of 2009’s “super harvest”. Judging it against a twenty year rolling average he thought it would come in at number three.
On the world market the prices for grains have dropped – will this good yield make up for the loss in sales revenue?
There the farms are a bit divided: one says the increase in yield will not offset the drop in revenue, a second expects that when all his grain is sold he will make up for the price drop, a third said it was too soon to tell but they had sold some forward, and the fourth sold most of the farm’s grain ahead – beating the fall in prices.
None of them expect the price to bounce back up – unless one of the world’s major exporters suffers catastrophic flooding or drought. But Richard Butler thought there could be, in the short term, a small recovery once all the harvest is in.
Do the results of this year’s harvest mean these three Marlborough farmers will be planting the same crops for next year’s harvest? James Sheppard is pleased with the varieties he has grown this year and will be planting the same areas and varieties.
George Hosier is drilling less oilseed rape, about the same areas of wheat and barley and in the spring will be planting more pulses and linseed. The Butlers will plant similar acreages, but less oilseed rape.
Up on the downs, Chris Musgrave is turning away from oilseed rape. Its price has dropped from £400 to about £240 a tonne and grown on chalk it will not produce the necessary yield to make a profit.
So on the downs next spring we can expect to see less of those vibrant yellow fields. What colour they will be remains to be seen.
Depending on local soil variations, the recent rain has setback the drilling by a couple or so days – no field work could be done on two of the farms on the day after the heavy rain. There is optimism that the early days of September will be hot and sunny – so they can round off the harvest, get in the last of the straw and complete the early planting.
