Edward Parsons is well underway with harvest at Templemans Farm, Redlynch, Wiltshire and is exceptionally pleased with the Grade one milling wheat.

“We put in 44ha of Crusoe and the yields have been phenomenal,” he said. “We’ve still got some in the ground, but from what we’ve cut, yields have reached around 11t/ha, reading off the combine.”

The 52ha of Claire was less pleasing, although still better than expected at 9.8t/ha.

“We’ve seen a lot of disease this year, especially septoria,” said Mr Parsons. “Although yields aren’t great, it’s better than we had anticipated as the disease looked to have had a significant impact.”

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The 128ha of winter oilseed rape reached average yields, with the hybrids the highest performing. DK Extrovert was the most pleasing at 4.2t/ha, while DK Cabernet was the worst at 3.2t/ha.

“Across the board we would expect to yield around 3.7t/ha,” said Mr Parsons. “The Cabernet was disappointing to fall below this.”

Mr Parsons was now busy cutting the 80ha of Propino spring barley, with yields averaging 7.4t/ha, according to the combine scales.

“We changed from Tipple to Propino this year. The crop has a good bold berry and the yields look to be meeting expectations, although everything is still due to be tested,” he said.

“We’ve heard the nitrogen has been a little low this year, but again, we’ll have to wait for sample results to come back.”

Mr Parsons was extremely pleased with the moisture content across the board, with the oilseed rape coming off the field at 7.5%, the wheat at 12-13% and the barley at 12.5%.

“With daytime temperatures around 30-31°C the moistures have been unbelievable,” he said. “We’ve been using the on-floor drying fans only at night, which has made a huge difference to our costs.”