Alec Webster is just making a start on spring barley at Lower Reiss Farm, Caithness, Scotland, with very little having been cut in the area.

“It’s mostly spring crops up here, so there’s really not very much harvest been done yet,” he said.

“Everyone would usually be started by 1 September, so we are behind, but not by a huge amount.”

So far Mr Webster had cut some very disappointing winter barley and just two fields of Waggon spring barley.

“Not much survived the winter up here, so the winter barley was okay, considering. The spring barley was also better than expected, but it’s a bit early to tell.”

Mr Webster was busy spraying off crops at the moment, and was worried that the windy weather on Tuesday (6 September) might have done some damage.

“We’ve had one good day followed by a bad day, but everything looks pretty good so far.

“Ground conditions are good, so when we get a good day we can get straight on – the crops are more or less ready to cut now, so we’re just making it up as we go along.”