Richard Ward has finished harvest at Home Farm, Barton-on-the-Heath, Gloucestershire, and is slightly disappointed with his yields.

“We didn’t expect it to be a brilliant harvest. It was a little better than we had thought, but in no way was it a barn filler.”

First wheats averaged about 9.3t/ha (3.75t/acre), with Alchemy and Cassius performing the best. But second wheats yielded less than 7.4t/ha (3t/acre).

“We got very little in below 15% moisture – it is mostly 15.5-16.5% and we don’t really want to dry it.”

Saffron winter barley did well, at about 7.4t/ha (3t/acre). “But we just can’t control the blackgrass so it’s the last year we’ll grow it.”

Spring naked oats also did reasonably well, at 3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre), but suffered from the same problem, he said.

Wizard winter beans, cut on Friday (11 September) proved disastrous, yielding less than 2.5t/ha (1t/acre).

However, spring beans and spring barley, which Mr Ward cut for a neighbour, performed well, as did oilseed rape. “It was a pleasant surprise.”

The early-ripening, low biomass variety Alienor proved easy and cheap to grow, and yielded almost 5t/ha (2t/acre) in one field.

“Most people have now got harvest wrapped up – the wheat is all gone, but there are a few fields of beans left to do.”

Crop: Winter beans
Variety: Wizard
Yield: <2.5t/ha (1t/acre)

Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Alchemy and Cassius
Yield: 9.3t/ha (3.75t/acre)

Crop: Naked oats
Variety: Lennon
Yield: 3.7t/ha (1.5/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Alienor
Yield: <5t/ha (2t/acre)