Showers continue to frustrate growers keen to get their crops in the barn, but wheat is still some way from being ripe in many parts of the country.

Charlie Edgeley was hoping to start his winter wheat this week, but expected rain to hold him off. “By the time it’s dried out enough it will be raining again,” he said. “It looks promising – we have just got to sit tight and be patient.”

Surprise showers stopped the combines in Yorkshire today (4 August), frustrating contractor Keith Snowball who was expecting a fine day. He had nearly finished the winter barley and was about half way through cutting oilseed rape.

“Barley has been very variable – the sandy land has done better than the heavy soil,” he said.

Winter barley yielded well at John Bartlett’s Upton Suffolk Farms, Newmarket, Suffolk, with Flagon, Pearl and Carat coming in at 7.4-7.9t/ha (3-3.2t/acre) on light land. 

In Kent winter linseed produced some pleasing results for AJ Baker & Sons, yielding just over 2.5t/ha (1t/acre). Peas had been disappointing, but the Solstice winter wheat was good, averaging 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre) off the first 10ha (24 acres).

Komando oilseed rape yielded well for Chris Batchelor (pictured above) in Wiltshire, averaging 3.8t/ha (1.5t/acre). Winter wheat was about 10 days away, with fusarium and septoria showing in a number of crops around the area, he said.

In Scotland, Boost winter barley averaged over 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre) for Frank Thomson’s family farm near Buckie. Spring barley was still two to three weeks away. “It looking quite nice at the moment – but we don’t need any more rain until October.”