Pearl winter barley is coming off at 13-13.5% moisture at FARMERS WEEKLY’s Farmer Focus writer, Mark Ireland’s Grange Farm in Lincolnshire.

“The sun is shining and it’s nice and dry,” he said.

He described the dry weather as “good news at the moment” as the farm dryer is out of action thanks to an electrical fire, and also because he isn’t having to burn expensive diesel to get the crop into store.

The variety is yielding 2.75t/acre which is not significantly above last year, despite the weather being “completely different” to the torrential rains of 2004.

Mr Ireland said he is “relatively pleased “with screenings of around 1.55-1.6%. “They are on a par with last year.”