Harvest is extremely late around Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, with only 40% of crops now cut, according to Lindsay Wright, store manager at Woldgrain.

“We’ve had rain all weekend, so are just waiting for a dry period to get the combines rolling again,” she said.

“The crops have been coming in quite wet, and quite a lot of the winter barley has failed to make malting due to pre-germination, which is something we haven’t seen much of in recent years.

“There is also still quite a lot of winter barley to come in.”

Oilseed rape was almost finished, with just one farmer waiting to cut his crop. “I don’t know if there’ll be much of it left to harvest,” said Miss Wright.

Oil contents had been lower than normal, at 42-43%.

So far wheat had been pretty poor quality, with most bushel weights at 68-70kg/hl, she added.

“We have got a fine day today (27 August), followed by heavy rain forecast tomorrow, so most of this week will be written off.

“We will probably soon start to see Hagbergs dropping – if we could get a dry spell we’ve only got about five days’ combining left, but it’s proving difficult to get those five dry days.”