HARVEST progress was a tale of two halves on Wednesday (Aug 4).

While weather woes hit farmers in the north and Scotland, most farmers in southern and eastern England escaped unscathed by showers and thunderstorms.

Wet weather meant harvest was nearly at a standstill over a lot of the north of the country.

Farmers who were unaffected by the downpours in the south have been trying to harvest as much as possible before the forecasted rain later this week.

David Fountain  in Cambs told FARMERS WEEKLY Harvest Highlights he has made a start on his Solstice wheat harvesting 12 ha (30 acres) with mixed results.

“The yield, protein content and specific weight were good but unfortunately the hagberg falling number was struggling a little bit.”

In West Sussex Jon Shaxson  has combined 20ha (50 acres) each of Xi-19 and Malacca. 

“Xi-19 looks fantastic and the Malacca looks good as well.”

Mr Shaxson is grateful he’s had a dry spell for the past couple of days.

“Thank goodness we missed those showers yesterday – we’re very lucky.”

However, farmers from other parts of the UK haven’t been so lucky.

Paul Temple  has been struggling to bring in rape on his farm in East Yorkshire.

“It’s a perpetual foggy haze – we’ve probably only received about 4 hours of sunshine in the last week – it’s desperate up here on the north-east coast.”

Scottish farmer Colin McGregor  is struggling after 16 mm of rain in the last two days.

“Again we‘ve been held up by the rain; we’re waiting to get stuck in.”

Andrew Craig  in Shropshire dubs the weather “just miserable” as it continues to keep the combine stationary.

Mark Warrener  in Nottinghamshire is having a good oilseed rape harvest, but struggling with weather as well.

“There‘s been a lot of mist and humidity, which means that on some days we can‘t get going till four in the afternoon.”

According to FWi weather services, Thursday’s weather will be cloudy and muggy over much of Eastern England.

Bright sunny spells are expected to move in from the west through the afternoon. Rain looks set to ease in the north.