Welcome to July’s update from WCM. Early harvest is now in full swing and this week we have started on new crop to the processing factory. We have been lifting some Accord up on the Wolds with good dry matters and good counts we can only hope that the quality carries on to our next growers whose contracted crops are destined for this market. With this in mind our main aim at the minute is to look at all contracted crops whether they be packing or processing to determine make sure they are able to make the quality specifications set out by the customer for example baker percentage, skin finish, dry matter and shape, this not only puts the growers mind at rest but the customer then knows that the contracted material be good enough for the supermarkets.
Our first load of early crop bakers is being lifted this week with skins 90% set, the variety Carrera was the earliest to set with Marfona about a week later. The variety is a fairly new one but seems to be one of the earliest maturing varieties we have seen this year with good skin finish and high baker percentage, if you have any question or are interested in purchasing some Carrera seed then please get in contact with Chris Yardley our seed manager and he will be more than happy to help.
On my travels I have been seeing common scab in a lot of crops that were clean after the critical stage of scab control; this has been due to the obscene lack of water not only on the Yorkshire Wolds but throughout the country which will in no terms have a detrimental impact on yield and quality.
With this in mind we can only hope that the market price remains firm throughout the year as many growers cannot face another season like 2009/10 as everyone has to make a profit to stay in the game and last year saw growers take a massive hit. Fingers crossed for a good season!!