Farmers in the North-East have almost finished winter barley, and are now waiting for everything else to ripen, according to Gary Bright of GrainCo.

“There’s little activity at the moment, but this week is the lull before the storm.

“Come Friday, if the weather stays nice, there will be oilseed rape, spring barley, wheat and oats ready – everything is due to ripen at the same time.”

Tynegrain had received 1000t of Cordiale so far, at 16% moisture, all of which had made milling quality, said Mr Bright.

But yields, in general, were very variable. “A lot of the crops we’ve had so far have died.”

With such low market prices, very few farmers were selling at the moment, he added.