The covers are coming off the combines across the country, with harvest back underway in many regions.

After almost a week off, both James Bowditch in Dorset and Andrew Craig in Shropshire were pleased to be back into their wheat today (August 22).

Both reported moisture contents just below 20%, with wheat yields around 10% down on last year.

In Suffolk Carl Driver was pleased to have finished harvest over a week ago – some 12 days earlier than normal. “We were lucky – we were only rained off once,” he said. “We’ve invested in some big kit and this year it has paid off.”

Yields were about 15% down on average, with the Astrid rape making 3.25t/ha (1.3t/acre), the Flagon malting barley averaging 7t/ha (2.8t/acre), and the continuous milling wheat yielding 8.5-9t/ha (3.4-3.6t/acre).

Further North in Yorkshire, David Hinchliffe hoped to be back on the combine this afternoon (August 22). “We’ve got about 57ha (140 acres) of Alchemy and Brompton wheat left and it’s looking alright – I don’t think it’s deteriorated yet,” he said.

But soft ground conditions were a real concern to James Grant-Suttie in East Lothian, who hoped to make a start on his spring barley tomorrow (August 23).

“We’ve had no disasters but we’re about one week behind last year and up here conditions can deteriorate pretty quickly once you get into September, so hopefully we’ll have a couple of fine weeks now.”

To read any of these reports in full, or see more from around the UK, visit FWi’s Harvest Highlights 2007.

You can also share your harvest pictures by sending them to us, to make sure they appear on our dedicated Harvest Highlights 2007 Picture Gallery.

If you prefer, we can set you up with your own gallery where you can upload pictures at any time to share them with other farmers.

We are hoping to print a selection of the best harvest pictures submitted each week in Farmers Weekly magazine. Please be aware that for use in the magazine we will need pictures to be taken using the highest quality setting on your camera.