MANY CROPS are still too wet to be harvested, even though rain has now stopped across most of the UK.

Nearly all farmers in the country have suffered recent wet weather, although some received much heavier downpours than others.

Phil Darke , from Camgrain in East Anglia, said 20% of the wheat has so far been harvested in his area, while oilseed rape is nearly finished.

He‘s noticed 20% of the wheat that’s so far come into the store has been affected by orange blossom midge, but in most cases it hasn’t had a serious affect on quality.

It seems Xi19 is the variety worst affected. “Xi19 has had some oddball patches while some hagberg has been a bit iffy.”

Will Cumber  has had a slow start to wheat harvest in Oxfordshire because of the rain. “My Claire wheat is ready to harvest. If only the weather would co-operate.”

His Soissons wheat has not done as well as he’d hoped. “It didn’t really survive the drought we had in April.”

However, Clive Brickle , from East Sussex, has been making progress.

“We’ve been cracking on with the wheat – we’re about 85% of the way through the harvest.”

He’s combined both 60ha (150 acres) of Napier and Xi19 with pleasing results.

Scottish farmer James McOuat has finished barley and oilseed rape harvest with pleasing results.

His Caracas oilseed rape harvest was “the best we’ve ever seen”, while the Pearl winter barley did well at 8.64 (3.5 t/acre) with a good crop of straw.

“My dad has a complaint for nearly everything, but when he saw this he just smiled.”

Meanwhile, Ed Lankfer  from Norfolk isn’t so happy.

“We’ve had enough rain to last us until the end of August. Yields haven’t been spectacular and quality has been mixed.”

According to FWi weather services , England and Wales will have persistent or even heavy rain with chances of thunderstorms on Wednesday (12 August).

Scotland will be dry in the morning but will also experience rain in the afternoon.