Andrew Elliott has finished combining oilseed rape at Claydon Estate, Buckingham, and plans to start winter wheat on Monday (4 August).

“We had some Charger that yielded really well, at 5.6t/ha – it looked good as soon as it came through the ground,” he said. “It’s a shame that the other 324ha didn’t do the same.”

The other varieties were Camelot and Excalibur, and they averaged about 3.5t/ha. As a result, Mr Elliott planned to increase the area of Charger to 162ha this year.

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“We were very lucky to miss the storms – our neighbour half a mile away had 80ha of oilseed rape and reckons he lost half of its yield in the storms.”

With heavy clay ground, harvest was always quite late at Claydon, and the winter wheat wasn’t quite fit, said Mr Elliott.

“My neighbour started in wheat yesterday, and we’ll be into the second wheats on Monday. All the wheat looks pretty good.”

This year he planned to drill 202ha of hybrid winter barley, to bring harvest forward a bit. “Hopefully it will compete with the blackgrass, which is becoming a bit of a problem.”