Caley Sackur said harvest was not going very well at Lodge Farm in the Yorkshire Wolds, having been rained off after one day of cutting winter barley. Eighty hectares of Pearl was “just ready” and was a day or two earlier than normal. “I hope at a guess it is doing 8.4t/ha, which would be as good as last year.”

He hoped quality levels were good enough to meet the malting contract specification.

Mr Sackur was swathing oilseed rape and was hopeful it would be a good crop. Excalibur in particular was very clean of disease, but he said both Royal and Excalibur were looking potentially good.

He added: “The wheat looks promising because we had good rain a month ago. Potentially things should go well here on the Yorkshire Wolds.”

• Crop: Winter barley
• Variety: Pearl
• Area: 80ha in total
• Yield: 8.4t/ha