When will this searing weather break? For those of us old enough it brings back memories of 1976! I was a boy of 12 and remember it well, particularly when the potato spinner span out a wasp nest and attacked my twin brother who was only wearing a pair of shorts while “picking potatoes” and was stung over 170 times! Suffice to say you wouldn’t want to spend much time in the vicinity of my brother today…….if you were a wasp!



In East Anglia with little spring rain we are very grateful that this extreme hot weather didn’t arrive in early June but came in July as for the most part crops were starting to ripen off and farmers are enjoying a reasonable harvest and in other parts of the country, an exceptional one. The nation can be assured they won’t starve this coming year which may not be true for others around the world such is the world we currently live in.

Our harvest highlights have been the barley crops with both the Autumn and Spring crops fairing well. Our wheats suffered a bit more but we are achieving some reasonable proteins in our milling wheats even if the yields are about 1 t/ha down on a more normal year.

This harvest we have a new Claas 8900 combine, (see picture) and we have had a few teething issues which is to be expected with a new machine. As I write this we have about 25% left to go over a total 2000ha to cut. Most farmers in our area seem to have finished harvest and are now scratching their heads as what to do or not to do with cultivations and some very hard ground. I enclose some pictures of our caterpillar and cultivator (you may recognise where) which would normally have tines up to 9” in the ground but are not being used in places this year! It is just the disc’s scratching the surface with a press at the rear.

I took the opportunity of taking our Group Finance Director, Andrew Lawson to see our combine and harvest operation yesterday so he could better understand what the advantages are of being a part of Camgrain only for the combine to be stood up as it had hit a large block of concrete in the field. That not being satisfactory for Andrew we got into my Discovery (‘14 plate) to head back to HQ only for that to break down too! Fortunately my wife Caroline was free to come and rescue us as we were situated very close to Stansted airport and some distance from CAPC! I hope Andrew doesn’t have this effect when visiting our stores!! An enjoyable trip though and no doubt to be repeated at some time but without the hiccups!

Farmers across the country are pondering how to establish oilseed rape this year or whether to abandon any attempt. Yields have rebounded this year after some difficult years with flea beetle and farmers will be keen to hopefully repeat the exercise if the promised rain arrives next week.

I can’t ever remember a year when we literally haven’t had to switch on our driers at Camgrain and I am sure it has made managing intake a lot more straightforward than in a wet or indeed “normal” year. For us farmers it has been a relief with the cost of drying grain being so high with current energy prices.

I know we are getting well through the harvest campaign so a big thank you from us farmers to you all at Camgrain and I hope you will be able to take some well earned time away with family and friends soon. Keep well and safe.