John Hutcheson was two-thirds of the way through his wheat at Leckerstone Farm, Dunfermline, Fife, and hoped to finish the spring barley today (11 September).

“It is challenging to say the least, but we’ve been quite lucky as we’ve had showers but they haven’t kept us off the land.”

The spring barley had yielded below average, at 4.4t/ha (1.8t/acre), but was all making malting quality so far.

Winter barley and wheat had both averaged about 10t/ha (4t/acre), and oilseed rape was about average at 3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre).

Mr Hutcheson still had 175ha (432 acres) of wheat, 83ha (204 acres) of spring oats and 45ha (110 acres) of beans to cut.

“The oats and the beans aren’t ripe but the wheat does need to be cut,” he said.

“But the big issue is next year’s cropping – we are starting to fall behind and prices are downhill all the way.”

Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Alchemy, Robigus, Predator and Monty
Area: 310ha (766 acres)
Yield: 10t/ha (4t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Optic
Area: 75ha (185 acres)
Yield: 4.4t/ha (1.8t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Sequel
Area: 159ha (393 acres)
Yield: 10t/ha (4t/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Catana, Mendel and Bravour
Area: 144ha (355 acres)
Yield: 3.7t/ha (1.8t/acre)

Crop: Spring oats
Variety: Firth
Area: 83ha (204 acres)

Crop: Spring beans
Variety: Fuego
Area: 45ha (110 acres)