Glen Sanderson is yet to start harvest at Eshott South Farm, Felton, Northumberland, but is cautiously optimistic about yield prospects.

“A few people have started cutting winter barley around here, and we’ll probably make a start on ours at the end of this week (w/c 21 July),” he said.

“It’s looking okay, but not as good as it did three months ago – we haven’t had the best growing weather.

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“Harvest won’t be as early as we’d expected, either, after two weeks of grey skies.”

Mr Sanderson’s oilseed rape was still two weeks off from being ripe, and few people had cut rapeseed in the area.

“It’s mostly winter barley that’s been cut, and yields haven’t been spectacular; although the earliest crops are never the best,” he said.

“Our crops look reasonably good, but the main worry is that the price of grain has fallen and the input costs have gone up.

“The excitement of harvest is always better when there’s a prospect of making a profit.”