Eric Haggart has finished harvest at Bailielands Farm, Auchterarder, Perthshire, but his neighbour is still busy combining wheat.

“He’s got quite a large acreage, and was cutting yesterday and today (8 October),” said Mr Haggart. “The beans are still a while away, too.”

Yields had been very disappointing, with spring barley some 30% down on average.

“We had Concerto, and it averaged about 5t/ha. We sold 100t for malting and it has met the specification so far, although there has been a lot of skinning in many crops.”

With yields looking so poor, Mr Haggart was not planning to sell any more barley until the New Year.

“I don’t believe the price reflects the lower yields we’ve all got – hopefully the market will be better at the turn of the year.”

The poor autumn last year meant he only managed to drill 12ha of winter wheat, which yielded a disappointing 5.6t/ha.

However, this year’s crop had gone into perfect conditions. “The weather has turned a lot better – ground conditions are good and the potato growers are getting on fairly well.”

But potato yields were below average, and many people had ploughed in peas, beans and turnips, he added.

“We’ve got our wheat all drilled up – things are looking a lot better than they were a few weeks ago.”