He is two thirds of the way through the harvest and hopes to make more progress on Tuesday (Aug 31).

The barley, oilseed rape and half of the wheat has been cut leaving 500ha (1,230 acres) of wheat and the beans still to be done.

Mr Shaw said his wheat “still looks alright” but expects hagberg levels in the remaining milling wheat to be poor.

The quality of the wheat harvested early on was good but now some of the remaining crops still in the field are laid and are sprouting meaning it will have to be sold as feed wheat.

Mr Shaw was happy with the performance of Malacca this year. The quality of the variety has been good while the yields are average.

There is a wide range of varieties on Mr Shaw‘s farm including Xi19, Solstice, Robigus, Einstein, Consort, Claire and Hereward.

He‘s happy with yields, despite a large range from 7.5 t/ha to 11 t/ha (3-4.5 t/acre).

There has been trouble with orange blossom midge damage, causing higher than average screenings, although Mr Shaw is not too concerned as the damage has not been too noticeable.

This year‘s wheat harvest has been very average, but he‘s not complaining after hearing the plight of the farmers further northwards.

He thinks his Optic spring barley will be a success. The quality is good and he‘s just hoping prices will increase as he thinks there may be a shortage of good quality malting barley this season.