Shropshire farmers prepare to reap bumper harvest

Good conditions for planting last autumn have been followed with a combination of overnight rain showers and regular sunshine to help yields to rise as harvest season comes around.

The mild winter has also meant that harvests are coming in earlier than ever, leaving growers to celebrate a strong year's performance.

Rob Alderson, who has wheat, oilseed rape and barley at his farm outside Onibury, near Ludlow, said: "We have got the crops in as early as I can remember, and talking to our contractors, they say they have never done so much combining in July before."

And Bruce Udale, who has more than 1,200 acres near Telford, added: "It's turning out to be a good harvest.

"Yields are above average. On a big farm like ours, you have a difficult job to get your average yields up, but we have seen 3.6 to 3.7 tonnes per acre.

"Everything went in pretty well last autumn, which is a good start, then we have had more than enough rain in the winter – but not so much as to cause any floods – followed by a fair amount of sunshine."

He added: "Normally if crops come early they have been burned off with drought, but everything seems to have grown well this year – including hedges, bushes and gardens

"It has been a mild winter, followed by plenty of moisture, and that's brought everything early, but they are all performing well."

Not everything is entirely rosy for the region's growers, however, particularly the price which is currently being paid for wheat, which has plummeted this year.

The price of wheat has fallen from more than £200 per tonne two years ago to closer to £120 today, and Mr Udale said that was the main drawback for farmers.

"The price is awful," he added. "At £160 or £170 it was too high, but it has gone to the other extreme now."

Oilseed rape crops are also coming in below par this harvest, because of disease which has caused black spots on leaves, preventing crops from benefiting from the weeks of sunshine.

Adrian Joynt, farm manager on the Apley Estate near Bridgnorth, added: "We had an early start, the same as everybody else, although the recent weather has put us back to where we would normally expect to be.

"The winter barley was good, the wheat we have cut is good, but the oilseed rape is distinctly average.

"Weather conditions have been fairly good overall, and were pretty good at sowing time so crops have established well. Despite being under disease pressure they haven't had droughts with the weather to knock them back."

Meanwhile, the fine weather is also helping to deliver an early apple harvest with growers promising shoppers a crop with "great crunchiness and lots of taste" across the board.

This year's apple harvest is set to start three weeks earlier than 2013, with early varieties already ripe for the picking, according to trade association English Apples & Pears.

While shoppers will have to wait until mid-September to see more popular varieties like Gala on the supermarket shelves, that is still set to come about a week earlier than average.

Adrian Barlow, chief executive of English Apples & Pears, said earlier croppers like Discovery had already started reaching the shelves of independent retailers by last week. The mild spring and warmer sunny weather has meant good news for all types of growers, with stone fruit like plums and cherries, and pears all doing well.

Mr Barlow said the conditions had been kinder to apples than the last couple of years, which had been beset with poor weather, but it was too early to make comparisons with 2011's peak. He added: "Last year we had a very late crop, and we lost three to four weeks of varieties not being on the shelf at the supermarket so we lost that shelf space, and that made life difficult. But this year, all told, things are looking very promising for the coming season.

"Quality is extremely good, we've had a lot of sunny weather, meaning taste will be very good, and the texture and colour will be extremely good. As far as the shopper is concerned they'll be very happy with the eating quality.

"The apples will have great crunchiness, lots of taste, and be a good size."

Early varieties to appear on shop shelves include Galmac, Delbar Estival, followed by Worcester Pearmain. Mr Barlow said chefs' favourite the Bramley apple was also looking good.