Andrew Crewdson is flat out baling hay and making silage at Sentry Farming’s Blagdon and Hartley Main Farms, Whitley Bay, Northumberland. But cereal harvest is still a little way off.

“We sprayed off the oilseed rape just over a week ago, and should be into barley harvest next week,” he said.

“That’s about normal for us, but it’s funny – the crops are all over the place, with Pearl, Volume and Cassata both ready and not ready in different places.”

Providing the weather was reasonable, harvest should begin two weeks earlier than last year, said Mr Crewdson. “But last year was just horrible – we’re just getting back to normality.”

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With 57ha of hay to bale and 60ha of silage to make before the weekend, it was all hands on deck at the moment, he added.

“Our wheats are turning fast – hopefully we will have an early wheat harvest. On the whole the crops look good – it was very wet whenever we tried to spray the wheat but once the flag leaf came out the weather came right, so we manage to block disease at the right time,” said Mr Crewdson.

“It was the right time for barley flowering, too – the only downside is the price, but I suppose we can’t have it all.”

Spring crops looked fantastic, but oilseed rape was patchy, he added “Where it’s good it’s good but where it’s not it really isn’t.”

Having travelled to Edinburgh by train recently, Mr Crewdson said other crops in the area also looked promising.

“The crops in the borders – where there’s some of the best land in the country – just look fantastic.”