William Mumford has had a mixed harvest at Agden Hill Farm, Great Staughton, Cambridgeshire, with winter barley and rapeseed doing well.

“We started with 60ha of Cassata winter barley, which came in at 7.5t/ha,” he said. “We had the same area of rapeseed and that did reasonably well too.”

Progress in the wheat crops was fairly slow, with green straw proving difficult to chop and combine output half what it was last year.

“Claire, Invicta and Cordiale winter wheat averaged 5.65t/ha,” said Mr Mumford. “Cordiale will make milling, albeit a lower specification, but Claire and Invicta have low bushel weights and will go for feed.”

The poor weather was very much to blame for such a poor harvest, he said.

“We had rain in April, May, June and July. We could have stood one of these months but not all together. It started poor and went downhill.”

While harvest was proving tricky, cultivations had also been a headache.

“We had to move ground to get it to dry out. Now it’s as dry as bricks. All the rapeseed is in the ground, although it’s lying in dust,” he added.

“It’s been a difficult year – nothing has been easy. It’s normally an exciting time but there’s been no pleasure on the combine.”

Crop: Winter Barley
Variety: Cassata
Area: 60ha
Yield: 7.5t/ha

Crop: Winter Wheat
Varieties: Claire, Invicta and Cordiale
Area: 120ha
 Yield: 5.65t/ha