Blankney Farm Update – 1 August 2025

The dry period continued through to the middle of July, with the Estate only receiving 30% of its annual rainfall in the March to July period.

This is not surprising to us. When we assessed our winter cereal crop potential at the end of May, we witnessed the loss of ‘tillers’ and a reduced ‘grain set’, which we felt at the time would lead to a poor harvest.

Sadly, this assessment has been proven correct.

We began harvesting on 9th July and as of Friday 1st August, 70% of our cereals harvest has been safely gathered in; a record early harvest, which has unsurprisingly led to yields being around 20-26% below our 5-year average.

The context of this is very worrying, as we have suffered previously from draught years in 2018 and 2022, alongside the extremely wet conditions of Autumn 2023. Nobody will be surprised that climate variability is impacting on our 5-year average yields – it is alarming to see the downwards trend, each year.

The forage crop season has been challenging to manage. Our grass and lucerne – with the benefit of irrigation – has grown well. Our Team has done an excellent job in achieving the quality needed for our chlorophyll production.

The recent rainfall has been very welcome and has likely saved our sugar beet and maize crop from further yield reduction. These crops now look considerably better.
As we harvest numerous crops throughout the year, we still hope to report a ‘good’ overall harvest.