The hot weather has bought most crops forward by two weeks on Tim Morris’s farm in Gloucestershire.

Wheat and barley combining started on 24th July while the oilseed rape is ripening more in line with a normal harvest.

Peas and spring barley on the farm were disappointing this year with the peas being bleached by the sun and achieving a yield of 1.5t/acre and the spring barley (Cocktail) failing to meet the malting standards and yielding 5.5t/ha.

Mr Morris blames only receiving 12 mm of rain in June which resulted in the grain not filling fully.

The wheat however did well this year achieving a yield of 8-10t/ha with the varieties Claire, Robigus and Nijinsky.

Moisture was around average for the wheat and barley (14-18% moisture) and oilseed rape at around 6-12%.

The oilseed rape was not desiccated this year and with the dry weather that has meant Mr Morris has not had to worry about harvest intervals: With desiccation the earliest date to combine would have been 28 July but left naturally it was ready to be harvested on 23 July a good five days earlier.

“We have a long way to go but we can afford to be patient with the showers due to the early start”.

• Crop: Wheat
• Variety: Claire, Robigus and Nijinsky
• Area: 80ha each
• Yield: 8-10t/ha
• Quality: Moisture 14-18%

• Crop: Spring barley
• Variety: Cocktail
• Area: 80ha
• Yield: 5.5t/ha
• Quality: Moisture 14-18%

• Crop: Oilseed rape
• Variety: Expert
• Area: 80ha
• Yield: 3t/ha
• Quality: Moisture 6-12%