DRY WEATHER over the last couple of days has seen nearly all farmers making considerable progress with their wheat harvesting.

Reports are now coming in from farmers who are close to finishing their harvest all together.

If the dry weather continues throughout this week (w/e Sept 3), a large proportion of farmers should finish their wheat, particularly those in the south and east of England.

Anthony Hornshaw  from North Yorkshire told FWi Harvest Highlights that he has only 32ha (80 acres) of wheat left to cut from his original 690ha (1,700 acres).

“We‘ll have finished by tomorrow midday (Sept 2) – it pleases me enormously to know we‘ve nearly finished.”

Although the quality isn‘t there, yields have been relatively good with 9.88 t/ha (4 t/acre) being the benchmark. The highest yields go up to 11.74 t/ha (4.75 t/acre).

Harry North from Glencore Grain saidthe harvest has pushed on well thanks to some better weather. He predicts 75% of the wheat has been harvested in his area south of the M4 corridor.

Things are going well for Mark Savidge in Herefordshire. He has now cut a third of the 130ha (320 acre) wheat crop with so far good results considering the weather.

Hereward yielded roughly 8.65 t/ha (3.5 t/acre) and the Solstice is yielding 9.88 t/ha.

From the seat of his combine Charlie Flindt said he was pleased to get going again after a three week break on his farm near Winchester, Hampshire.

“Hagbergs crashed down to 60 from its original level of 240. It‘s definitely all feed wheat now, but there‘s a lot of it.”

Scots farmer Doug Fowlie near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, has cut half of the 220ha (550 acre) spring barley crop so far. Optic was yielding 6.18t/ha (2.5 t/acre) and made malting quality.

But, Ed Lankfer was forced to stop harvesting on Tuesday (Aug 31) when his combine nearly got stuck on his farm near Wereham, Norfolk. He is having problems with heavy dews and increasingly shorter days.

According to FWi weather services, tomorrow (Sept 2) Scotland, Northern England and South-West England may have cloud and showers in the morning but will fade away by the afternoon. The rest of the UK will be dry.