Harvest is now progressing well at Battletown Farm, Newtonards, County Down, where Mark McFerran has finished cutting winter barley and winter wheat.

“We cut 10ha of Cassia winter barley three weeks ago just before the weather broke,” he said.

“It was lovely and warm and dry – it came off at 13% moisture and yielded 6.8t/ha, so we were very pleased with that.

“It was nice quality and the straw was baled straight afterwards, but the weather has been broken ever since.”

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However, a dry spell last week meant Mr McFerran had managed to cut the Beluga winter wheat at 17-18% moisture. “It came off at 9.3t/ha with a bushel weight of 75-76kg/hl, which we’re very happy with.”

Mr McFerran had sprayed off the remaining 14ha of Waggon spring barley and expected it to be ready later this week (w/c 25 August).

“It has stood up well to the bad weather – we’re lucky not to have suffered any lodging in any of the cereals.”