WHEAT HARVEST

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22203, 21 February 1942, Page 4

WHEAT HARVEST

* Delayed By Wet Weather Moisture Content High With unsettled harvest weather following on an unfavourable growing season, the harvesting of the wheat crop is occasioning problems for farmers, merchants and millers. Frequent showers are interrupting operations with the headers, and many lines of wheat sent in have too high a moisture content. The consensus of opinion is that, now the season is well advanced and the days growing shorter, farmers who have been considering harvesting with the header would be well advised to use the binder. Merchants report that numerous lines pf headed wheat are coming in very damp; including lines which have been threshed. The view is held that farmers are definitely taking a risk in waiting for crops to get into condition for heading and would be wise to get crops cut by the binder without delay. Some of the best lines of wheat being harvested at present have a moisture content of between 15 and 16, but by the time the wheat reaches Timaru in a tarpaulin covered truck the moisture content has risen to 17 or more. In fact, some of the lines handled have had a content of 20 per cent, moisture. Position Disappointing “This position is very' disappointing considering that the Wheat Research Committee has opened an office in Timaru for testing wheat,” commented one merchant. “If farmers are unable to get the wheat right for heading or get a header when the wheat is in condition, “he added, “it would be better to put it into stack and let it condition. The increments of Id a month to the end of July, and id a month thereafter more than covered any interest occasioned by the delay. There was no necessity for farmers to rush the wheat in, and in any case difficulty might be encountered in securing trucks or lorries for haulage.” The excessive moisture of the wheat is also occasioning difficulties for the milling companies, and one miller last evening said that some of the lines sent in were beginning to show signs of sprouting. Good dry weather in the last two seasons put wheat in excellent condition for heading, but farmers who were Induced by that experience to purchase headers are taking a chance by hanging off to put them into operation this season. A week’s fine weather should harden the grain sufficiently but the more prudent course with conditions still unsettled would be to get the binder into action at once.