Like you, we are getting seriously worried about this harvest. The FW team is completely preoccupied with the challenges or, should I say crisis, the wet weather is presenting for farmers. It dominates our working day as, I'm sure, it does every grower.
Some of the FW journalists have family farms and so are grappling with the issues in the field and then reporting on them at the same time. We have been using our barometer farmers to keep us up to date and give you daily assessments of how its going overall in your region and across the country. It's a mixed picture. For many in the south west and north, for example, it's looking like a disaster in terms of yield, quality and drying costs. See harvest highlights (or should it be harvest lowlights) in pictures, stories and forum discussions. There you can access information about how much is left to cut; how the harvest is progressing and moisture content details.
When is it going to stop raining?. The forecast for this weekend is once again dire with severe weather warnings in some parts. I heard that the forecast for East Cornwall was that it would rain everyday in that area for at least another week. Our senior arable writer Andrew Blake has just heard from a neighbour in Wiltshire that he still has 1000 acres of wheat to cut and it's still pouring there. The only slight glimmer of positive is that most of the crops Andrew has seen in the county seem to be standing reasonably well given the battering they have had.
We are trying to put together more meaningful round-ups of what's going on around the country and will do a proper assessment of the full impact after this weekend's downpours. But keep us posted if you hear of anything noteworthy concerning the harvest or want to be included in next week's roundup. The more comprehensive we can make our coverage the better for everyone.