David Butler has made a start on his winter wheat, and is drafting in a third combine to help get the crops in more quickly.

“It looks like the quality has been holding,” he said. The 40ha (100 acres) of Solstice cut at East Wick Farm, Wootton Rivers, Marlborough, Wilts, had yielded 9.3t/ha (3.75t/acre).

“It is still extremely wet and we are very concerned about the ground conditions – we’re going to have a radical rethink on our cropping.”

Mr Butler had finished the oilseed rape, losing about 10% of the yield through shedding on the last 80ha (200 acres).

He now had 405ha (100 acres) of milling wheat to cut. “There are quite a few crops now showing signs of damage – if the weather continues they will go down.”

However, the cool temperatures were helping to keep the quality up for the time being, he added.

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Solstice
Area: 40ha (100 acres)
Yield: 9.3t/ha (3.75t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Yield: > 7.4t/ha  (3t/acre)