Harvest continued to drag on at Priors Farm, Newbury, Berkshire, thanks to flat barley and breakages.

“We seem to have had three days of harvest left every day – it just doesn’t seem to get any closer,” said Richard Brown. He only had 24ha (60 acres) of NFC Tipple spring barley left to cut, but most of it had gone flat.

“If it was all standing it would be a day’s work, but we have to get terribly close to the ground so the combine keeps swallowing stones.”

The 36ha (90 acres) cut so far had yielded about 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre) and looked a reasonable sample, said Mr Brown.

The 69ha (172 acres) of Alchemy winter wheat had yielded 8-8.6t/ha (3.25-3.5t/acre), and some was loaded to Southampton for export yesterday at £161/t.

“I suppose harvest is already a week behind last year, but really we’re not that far behind normal – it’s just we started very early so it’s been a very long harvest.”

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Alchemy
Yield: 8-8.6t/ha (3.25-3.5t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Tipple
Yield: 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre)