September 6, 2010

Storms continue to disrupt UK's grain production

Showers and storms have continued to disrupt harvest across the UK, although there were hopes that a return to more settled weather conditions would allow cutting to resume.

According to the NFU, more than half of the harvest was complete by the end of August.

Parts of the South West have suffered prolonged wet weather, with only four dry days in August and nothing cut between August 16 and 27.

Most winter malting barley and milling wheat is now in store. Quality is reported to be good and yields have held up in spite of the dry spring and early summer.

Mycotoxin results so far have been very low, in line with HGCA risk assessment results and CropMonitor surveys.

This season's national wheat disease survey indicated mycotoxin producing fusarium species were present in 10% of crops this season. The risk map based on the previous occurrence of these species indicates a high risk in the south and east and moderate risk in the Midlands, according to crop consultants.

High rainfall pre-harvest can significantly increase mycotoxin levels and areas with more than 20mm of rain pre-harvest have increased risk.

According to crops consultants, this season's wheat harvest is slightly behind average, but not as far behind as in recent wet years. Yields are just below the five-year average of 7.9 tonnes/ha.