Mr Moore is happy: “We sold our barley under contract for good money.”

The barley has been coming in at 6.18 t/ha (2.5 t/acre) over the weighbridge while moisture content has been between 13.5 and 15.5%.

Mr Moore grows Maris Otter barley because the brewery likes the variety for its ales.

“Although it’s lower yielding than the 2 row feed varieties, the premium I receive definitely makes up for it.” 

Mr Moore said: “The rape this year has been rather disappointing.”

“It established well and it looks quite good.

“The crop doesn’t have dense canopy meaning that yields could be as low as 1.25 t/acre (3.09t/ha) when we usually get at least 1.5 t/acre (3.71 t/ha).”

“We’ve done everything right, but this year we’re not going to break any records.”

Mr Moore said he has missed out on some of the recent rain allowing some of his rape to dry out.

“Our moisture content for the rape was 9%, which was bang on for our contract.”

“We’ve got quite a lot to do still,” said Mr Moore.

“We’ve got problems of volunteer wheat in our spring barley on the back of the dry autumn last year to deal with.”