Send us your views on harvest progress/prospects: Karen.Willmer@rbi.co.uk

Combines were quiet today (25 July) and farmers are back in the office as rain sweeps the country.

Prospects are average for the South and East, as farmers report on harvest.

Despite the weather being “horrible, wet and not very nice”, David Fountain in Cambridge shire has finished what he can for now. His Recital oilseed rape yielded 4.25t/ha, which was “evenly ripe and looked good”.

Half an inch of rain has caused David Herdman also in Cambridge shire to ground to a halt, however the oilseed rape yields were so “pleasing” that he has decided to grow it again next year.

Soissons winter wheat is also ready to be cut once the weather has dried out.

The wet weather has resulted in Fusarium in the barley for James Lunn in Lincolnshire. The forecast of rain also forced early cutting to avoid having to pay the high cost of drying. He said: “We either had to cut early or lose a lot of it.”

But rain was “fantastic” for Robert Shove in North Kent having had very little this year. He was expecting to start wheat harvest once the rain had stopped.

Rain had also stopped Alistair Pinkerton’s harvest in Essex, with 40% of Recital oilseed rape still to be cut. The drought has meant the “crops suffered”, and he was expecting the wheats to be “a disaster”.

However, he said the oilseed rape “coped better than we thought”.

See FWi’s Harvest Highlights section for the regional reports in full and more from around the country, updated every day.