The rains washed away both the yield and quality from his wheat. His Napier second wheat actually yielded higher than the first wheats because it was harvested before the onslaught of rain.

Mr Manners was thankful his combine has terra tracks on it “otherwise we would definitely have got stuck”.

His first wheats were yielding a bit below 9.88 t/ha (4 t/acre) with Solstice being the best compared to the other two varieties Robigus and Malacca.

“The Solstice had unbelievable resistance to germination. Even when it was lying flat it wouldn‘t start to have second growth.”

He had problems with laid patches in most of the fields because “the crop went in so well and just didn‘t stop growing.”

“We got out of jail because the weather turned at such a critical time,” Mr Manners said.

He hopes to start harvesting his potatoes in the middle of next week (w/e Sept 17), but is worried about the quality after the large amounts of rainfall he‘s received.

He has not got any blight yet, but said the disease is in the area.