Leicestershire's arable farmers are having to be patient as they wait for conditions to come right for harvesting the county's crucial wheat crop.Oilseed rape and winter barley harvests were mostly completed before the latest period of rainy weather started, although there are still a few remaining crops to be harvested.

But the wheat harvest has been on hold for some time and is set to be a "stop-start" affair, with some potentially big drying bills.

"We had finished all our oilseeds and barley and were just starting on the wheat", said Neil Gilby, who farms at Loughborough and near Stamford.

Simon Smith, from Lyndon Farms, in Fleckney, said they successfully harvested some 1,000 acres of oilseed rape with average yields (between 1.3 and 1.2 tonnes/acre) but wheat crops need a couple of days dry weather and ripening before they are ready.

"A couple of days of hot sun and it will be ready," he said.

"Some of them are ready and just need drying out, while the later varieties - on the more fertile land - will need four or five days of sunshine before they are ripe."

David Sheppard, managing Director of grain traders Gleadell, says the delays in harvest are not causing any problems at the moment, but any further significant delay could start to damage quality.

"If we have really bad weather then the quality of the grain can be damaged very fast." he said.

"If it is just normal rainfall, drizzle and the damp, then it will not affect quality for a couple of weeks yet."

Source: Leicester Mercury

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