“I’ve had nothing tested yet, but I’m not too enthusiastic.”

A lot of the crop is lying flat as it bowed down under the pressure of continuous rain and strong winds.

“It‘s very flat and very wet – it doesn’t look nice.”

Mr Almack harvested 20ha (50 acres) of Claire yesterday (Aug 22), finishing at 1.30 this morning, but found everything was wet again when he woke up today.

He reckons the crop is yielding well, while quality is poor.

“We’ve had virtually solid rain – memories of the harvest in 2000 come flooding back.”

The highest moisture content he cut at was 22%, but yesterday afternoon (Aug 22) it went down to 17%.

Problems are forming because of wet crops. Drying costs are as high as ever because of the soaring price of oil and combines are more likely to break down as it picks up stones when trying to pick up lodged crops.

“It all spells trouble,” added Mr Almack.