Tuesday, 15 January 2019 08:36

Harvest looking like hard work

Written by  Nigel Malthus

Cropping farmers have had to put up with an unusually wet start to summer.

Richard Porter, who farms 500ha at St Andrews, south of Timaru, told Rural News his wheat was “looking fantastic” a month ago, but he is now struggling with fusarium brought on by the wet.

Peas on heavy land are also having problems with wet feet, he said, quipping that he is now “reasonably pessimistic”.

“They won’t be harvested for another month yet, but just looking at them I can tell already that some aren’t looking very good.”

Porter’s neighbour, Miles Anderson, said the wet November and December resulted in such boggy paddocks that he had to use a neighbour’s tracked header to get a winter barley crop in.

“Otherwise I’d be waiting for weeks. I know a lot of people on the heavier country are having trouble harvesting their barley because of the ground conditions.”

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