Steven McAllister from Whites was over visiting some farms in the Eastern Counties.  It is great to have customers out on farms to understand the condition of the crops and the challenges farmers face.  This trip was a good example of how different crops can be within a relatively short distance geographically.   Some Mascani on sand in Norfolk pretty was short and much fully emerged.  The drought stress had hastened the crop through its development and it was at growth stage 55-ish and has little further yield potential. On heavier ground in Suffolk a crop of Mascani was developing well, much taller and less stressed they were developing well and looked good.  A third Mascani crop was somewhere in between.  It had established well with are ally good stand of plants but they were shorter than would be ideal and needed some rain but were behind in their development and hopefully recent rains will have benefitted them.

The spring crops were similarly showing some differences although less pronounced with lack of moisture likely exacerbating differences in fertility that may be present.

We also took looked at the Timpani seed crop we are growing. This you may recall is a variety that showed excellent grain quality in last year's trials but didn't make the recommended list.  We have progressed the variety as Whites are interested in its grain quality and we didn't want it to be condemned to a gene bank until it had a fair chance to prove itself.  We can hopefully offer seed next spring.

You should have received the Whites contract last week so please review and return.  We've had questions about estimating tonnage, but please remember we review tonnages post-harvest so this is an indication not a firm commitment.