Harvest still about 14 days off at Wold Farm, Driffield, Yorkshire, and Paul Temple is not holding out much hope of record-breaking yields.

“There’s a little bit of winter barley cut around here, but not much,” he said. “I think we’ll have to spray our barley off with glyphosate to finish it off.

“Our winter barley looks a mess, because it got lodged after heavy rainfall in May, so it doesn’t look good.”

See also: FW columnists make harvest predictions.

Mr Temple sprayed off his oilseed rape yesterday (14 July), and said it looked to be a reasonable crop.

“We’ve just been a bit shy on sunshine, so I’m not convinced.”

The winter wheat would also benefit from some more sun, he added. “At one stage in May I was desperately worried about it.

“It looks better now, but we’re waiting nervously over the last bit of finishing.”