The gap is narrowing between the winter barley yields of this harvest and the five-year average of 9.36t/ha, according to fresh data from 14 AHDB Recommended List (RL) trial sites stretching from Perthshire in Scotland to Devon in south-west England.

FWi user ‘hross’ uploaded this photo of harvesting winter barley to our harvest gallery

While the overall yield average of 9.14t/ha for harvest 2016 continues to show a trend of lower winter barley yields compared with the five-year average, the shortfall is now 0.22t/ha, down from 0.43t/ha below average at the last set of results.

This harvest, the six-row hybrid feed varieties Belfry and Bazooka have been two of the top yielders, with the latter variety hitting the highest average specific weight so far at 67.0 kg/hl, compared with the 66.3 kg/hl average.

See also: 5 top-yielding winter barley varieties map

Of the two-rows, the feed variety Orwell claims the average yield top spot across the 14 trial sites to publish harvest results so far.

Meanwhile, figures from six oilseed rape RL trial sites ranging from Yorkshire to Kent show average yields are down 0.75t/ha on the four-year average at 4.69t/ha, but there is significant variation between the sites.

The top-performing varieties currently include Picto, Campus, Alizze, Angus and V316OL.