Mike Cumming hoped to finish harvest at Lour Farms, Ladenford, Angus, tonight (22 September) or tomorrow.

After 11 days of wet weather, he had tried to start combining again on Friday, but at 41% moisture soon stopped again.

He did a couple of turns at 32% moisture on Saturday, and 30ha (75 acres) on Sunday at 23-27% moisture, leaving 30ha (75 acres) to finish today at 21%.

“We are very reluctant to wait another day in case the weather breaks again. There are some people not started on wheat in the area.”

Yields had been knocked from the initial 11t/ha (4.5t/acre) due to sprouting, said Mr Cumming. “That is going to pull our average back.”

Robigus had sprouted particularly badly, while Istabraq had held up very well, he added. Overall, bushelweights had dropped from 75kg/hl before the rain to 65kg/hl now.

Mr Cumming reckoned he would have used over 25,000 litres of fuel to dry grain this year, and was very relieved to be nearly finished.

He now had 80ha (200 acres) of potatoes to lift, and started drilling winter barley yesterday.

Farmers had 30% of their wheat left to cut in the area before the weekend, although that was likely to drop to 10% by mid-week, he said.

Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Alchemy, Istabraq, Consort and Robigus
Area: 150ha (370 acres)
Yield: < 11t/ha (4.5t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Varieties: Optic and Oxbridge
Area: 113ha (280 acres)
Yield: <6t/ha (2.45t/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Excalibur and Bravour
Area: 67ha (165 acres)
Yield: <4.5t/ha (1.8t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Decanter
Area: 36ha (90 acres)
Yield: <6t/ha (2.45t/acre)