Harvest is on hold at David Hinchliffe’s Bank House Farm, Goole, Yorkshire, following heavy rain on Wednesday and again today (17 August).

With wheat at 20% moisture yesterday, Mr Hinchliffe had little hope of cutting anything today, but had managed to cut all 100ha of his rapeseed.

“We managed to get all of our rapeseed off at about 4t/ha, which was around 20% down on last year,” he said.

However, he had expected a drop in yield following the lack of sun and damp start to the summer.

“We had two thirds of our annual rain between April and July. It’s just one of those years which we’ll have to draw a line under.”

Mr Hinchliffe had also managed to cut 80ha of the 330ha of winter wheat, with Grafton yielding about 9t/ha.

“Hopefully the weather will brighten up and we’ll get on with the rest of the wheat, which is split between Grafton, Target and Relay,” he said.

“We’ve got beans to do too but they’re a while off.”

Crop: Rapeseed
Variety: Excalibur
Area: 100ha
Yield: 4t/ha

Crop: Winter Wheat
Variety: Grafton
Area: 80ha
Yield: 9t/ha