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

Farmers are concerned for their crops after another day of heavy rain across the country. Many farmers remain at a standstill today (July 28) with crops too wet to cut.

Wiltshire farmer James Stafford was happy with the harvest until the rain came. His concern lies with whether the oilseed rape pods will stay intact after heavy rain and strong winds.

The crop moisture was as high as 20% after yesterday’s rain at noon, but he was “quite surprised” that it had dropped to 9.5% by 6pm that night.

Charles Martin in Hertfordshire was concerned his wheat and peas were not ripening due to the rain, but he said his first crop of Winner oilseed rape looked alright.

Stephen Horn in Hampshire was finding the wet weather “frustrating” as it was the cause of a small amount of light leaf spot on his Expert oilseed rape. Expert and Recital varieties were reportedly fine.

The rain meant the oats were too wet to cut for Tim Lock in West Sussex, who had suffered from rain every day this week. But he was happy the Recital oilseed rape yielded 4t/ha which was above last year’s 3.7t/ha.

For Paul Bird on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border, concerns were for his wheat which was starting to lean following the rain. Despite this he said things were “fairly good” with Winner oilseed rape yielding 4.2t/ha and oil of 44%.

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