“Everything is going fairly fast but it is not filling the barn enough,” said Peter Fairs from Great Tey, Essex. “The crops all looked pretty well until the start of July when the dry spell hit us.”

Two hundred hectares of Hearty industrial oilseed rape did not yield as well as he had hoped. “It was a little disappointing because it looked ok before July.”

The weather had been too hot for 560ha borage which had been a “diabolical” harvest. In 24 years of growing, he said this was the worst crop he had ever seen. “Flower seeds don’t like the hot weather so the dry spell meant it didn’t make any seeds.”

Mr Fairs was 280ha through 880ha of winter wheat. He said the yields of Solstice and Robigus were about average.

“The wheat is coming in nice and dry, so I think it’s going quite well at the moment.”