Martin Smart is busy combining winter barley and oilseed rape near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, with some surprising results.

“We’ve just finished cutting trials of Harper and Gin Fizz oilseed rape, and we’re finding yields have suffered on the heavier land which lay wet over winter,” he said. “The stoney brash, which doesn’t normally yield well has been really good.”

Yields ranged from 2.7t to 3.7t/ha, and higher in patches, with crops coming off at 8-8.5% moisture in the main. “But it’s scorching here, and it got down to 6% moisture yesterday,” said Mr Smart.

With Extrovert and Compass to cut, he was pleased that crops had been ripening at very different paces. “You wouldn’t want everything ready at the same time in this heat.”

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Visually, the oilseed rape had been very misleading, he added. “Spindly crops did well and vice versa – you really can’t go on looks alone.

“And it will be interesting to see what oil contents they are – the bonus will be very important with prices as low as they are.”

Volume winter barley had yielded extremely well at 8.5-9t/ha, and produced huge amounts of straw, said Mr Smart. “I’ve never seen straw like it – if it had gone to auction it would have made phenomenal money.”

The barley, too, had performed best on the lighter land. “On fertile soils that lay wet, the crops just didn’t get their roots down. You can draw a line around soil types by looking at the yield maps.”

Winter wheat looked to have followed a similar pattern, he added. “Anywhere that was wet has got a lot of blackgrass and brome, because we simply couldn’t get on to spray it.”

With three combines to keep busy, Mr Smart was surprised at the slow pace of harvest so far. “A lot of people haven’t started combining around here. We’ve got a lot of oilseed rape to cut, and one of our combines has only just started in winter barley.”