UK Wheat
Variable seems to best describe the state of play, with what is looking like being only an average wheat crop at best this season. Although rains were forecast to finally arrive to the parched south east overnight, many are saying that they're too late to do much, if any, good.
All in all it hasn't been an ideal season: a dry autumn enabled good planting progress, but also caused late emergence. Follow that up with a hard cold winter, a dry spring leading to poor nitrogen uptake and then a heatwave means "we are lucky to have anything at all," one grower in the south east tells me.
His yields will be "at the bottom of our average, if we do not set a record low for recent years," he adds.
In his area 2nd and subsequent wheats are generally thin, and were a week or so behind in development before the hot weather hit. Rain now will not help these crops, he says.
Growers here seem to be gearing up to start harvesting wheat around the first week in August. Indeed there seems to be a feeling that rain now may slow things down rather than add anything to final yields.
Spot the continuous wheat field:
All in all it hasn't been an ideal season: a dry autumn enabled good planting progress, but also caused late emergence. Follow that up with a hard cold winter, a dry spring leading to poor nitrogen uptake and then a heatwave means "we are lucky to have anything at all," one grower in the south east tells me.
His yields will be "at the bottom of our average, if we do not set a record low for recent years," he adds.
In his area 2nd and subsequent wheats are generally thin, and were a week or so behind in development before the hot weather hit. Rain now will not help these crops, he says.
Growers here seem to be gearing up to start harvesting wheat around the first week in August. Indeed there seems to be a feeling that rain now may slow things down rather than add anything to final yields.
Spot the continuous wheat field:
