Alistair Home-Roberts was very pleased with how harvest had gone this year at Berwick Grove, Shrewsbury.

“Considering the circumstances with the dry summer, we can’t complain. A few crops didn’t do so well but we’re very pleased.”

He had finished combining 260ha (650acres) of winter wheat on his own farm but still had 18ha (45acres) remaining on a contract farm. The remaining crop was still standing and not sprouting, so he hoped it should all be fine when cut this week.

His last 16ha (40acres) cut after the rain came in at 16% moisture and quality was not too bad.

Yields ranged from 7.75t/ha (3.1t/acre) to 10.5t/ha (4.2t/acre), with Robigus and Claire doing particularly well over Ambrosia and Napier. Mr Home-Roberts had grown all milling wheat up to this year, so yields were up on average.

“We went entirely to feed wheat because of premiums – the cost of growing is high and we were just not getting the premiums back to justify expenditure. It was also partly due to the simplicity of feed wheats over milling wheat.”

He planned to grow Alchemy, Gladiator and Ambrosia next year with some Einstein.

He added: “Harvest could have been considerably better if we had rain at the right time, but it was not a big disaster as it could have been. There were not many drying costs, which was good.”

• Crop: Winter wheat
• Variety: Robigus, Claire, Ambrosia, Napier
• Area: 260ha (650acres)
• Yield: 7.75-10.5t/ha (3.1-4.2t/acre)