Wheat quality is rapidly declining following last week’s rain, according to Rob Sanderson at Openfield.

However, most of the wheat that had been left to cut was feed or soft wheat, so Group 1 and 2 milling wheat was generally in the barn, he said.

“Up until last week what was in the stores was very good quality. Most spring barley had also been cut and that was very good quality too.

“Hopefully, with this week’s forecast the English farms should be close to finishing.”

However, it was a different picture in Lincolnshire, where farmers had suffered particularly badly with the rain, said Simon Schaaning, store manager at Honey Pot Grain Store.

“I would say about a third of the wheat had been cut before the rain, and we haven’t got much hope for the rest.

“What we had in last week was very poor, at 20-23% moisture, and Hagbergs were well under 200.”

Farmers had managed to get combining yesterday (30 August) afternoon and today. “Out of the two-thirds that’s left to cut, half would be milling varieties.”

However, so far there had been no problems with mycotoxins, he added.