Harvest was still at least ten days away from starting for Stephen Bumstead, an FW Farmer Focus writer from Great Barford, Bedfordshire. He hadn’t even serviced the combine as yet, he told Harvest Highlights.

Top priority at the moment was to spray off green tillers with Reglone (diquat) in his Heros spring oilseed rape. But it was too wet today to work, he said. “We’ll wait for some good dry weather.”

Once harvest started he was happy to try to dodge showers as much as necessary. “But I feel for those poor souls around Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, who are worse off than me.”

Other than the spring oilseed rape, Mr Bumstead also had Cocktail spring barley, spring beans and Cordiale and Robigus winter wheat to combine. “The wheat is starting to lean.”

Next year Mr Bumstead was contemplating growing more (winter?) barley, as malting prices were looking more and more attractive.