Kim Acres is having a well-earned break from harvest at Gosmere Farm, Sheldwich, Kent, as heavy rain has brought combining to a stop.

“We were loading a grain lorry and had to stop, it was just torrential,” he said. “It will be an early night tonight (11 August) for once.”

However, the farm had escaped quite lightly, with rain passing it on both sides on Thursday and Friday last week. “Everyone else had to stop but we could just keep combining,” said Mr Acres.

See also: Photos – the faces of harvest.

Yields had been pleasing as well, with Solstice winter wheat coming off at 4.4t/ha and Crusoe possibly doing even better than that, he added.

“But the Kabuki peas were not so good – I think they’ll have only done 2.5t/ha.”

PR46W21 oilseed rape wasn’t brilliant either, yielding just 3t/ha.

“But the Ahiflower that we’re growing for Technology Crops came off nicely – we’ve done some trials with them for a few years and this is the first year of growing it as a commercial crop.”

With a little bit of triticale and 80ha of Santiago winter wheat left to cut, Mr Acres reckoned he only had about four or five days of harvest left. “But obviously they’ll have to be dry days, so we’ll just have to wait for them.”