Wet weather has postponed Peter Bawn yet again in Byford, Herefordshire. “We‘ve only been going for one day so far,” he said on Tuesday morning (3 August).

Yesterday, Mr Bawn managed to harvest 15 ha (38 acres) of Winner oilseed rape.

It yielded 3.21 t/ha (1.3 t/acre) on the worst parts of the field, climbing to 3.98 t/ha (1.61 t/acre) on the better parts where the crop was thicker.

Moisture content was around 9%.

“It‘s disappointing, but it‘s as good as it was ever going to be because of the establishment problems we had last autumn; it was so dry; we didn’t get any rain from the end of harvest to October.”

Mr Bawn still has another 65 ha (160 acres) of rape that is ready to cut before his wheat, which he predicts to be ready near the end of next week.

“Our wheat is normally ready on the 13 August, so if anything we’ll be a bit earlier than imagined.”