Andrew Gloag finished combining last night (19 September) at Busby House Farm, Stokesley, Yorkshire, with disappointing results.

“We’ve had a big difference in wheat varieties, with Diego doing the best at 8.5t/ha, down to Conquerer at 7t/ha,” he said. “Santiago sat in the middle at 8t/ha.”

“We’ve had 30% either blind sites or poor grains.”

However, with a hefty fungicide bill and an expensive ear wash Mr Gloag remained optimistic of having a saleable crop, unlike some supplies.

“Fortunately we’ve had the heap sampled and it came out with a bushel weight between 68kg/hl and 71kg/hl, so we’ve got something to sell, albeit with some deductions.

“I don’t know whether this is because we’ve spent so much money on it or not.”

But following last year’s record average yield of 10t/ha, this year’s harvest was hard to swallow, but Mr Gloag did not plan to change his cropping.

“We’re just going to scrape 7.5t/ha, but I suppose it’s just of those years. We dropped Oakley last year in favour of Santiago but I’ve heard some good reports on Oakley this year so it would be wrong to make a big policy decision such as that,” he said.

Aside from his wheat, Mr Gloag had also cut 700ha of rapeseed, which was significantly down, standing at 3.63t/ha.

“They were all good looking crops with plenty of pods – it’s just that the seeds were small.

“We do have some good oil contents, though, at 43-44%. Hopefully we won’t be too far off budget despite yields being lower, as prices are higher.”

With the next oilseed crop in the ground, Mr Gloag was concerned about its emergence and growth.

He was also awaiting delivery of seed before starting to drill his wheat. “We’ll hopefully start drilling first wheats tomorrow as it’s too wet today.”