Wheat harvest is underway in Slough, Berkshire, with the earliest Soissons at Stephen Whitby’s Rowley Farm, Wexham, yielding 7.4t/ha (3t/acre).

“That is about average,” he said. “It is not all fit but it looks good – it’s 14% moisture but we haven’t had any sample results back yet.”

Combines are also full steam ahead in Norfolk, where Robin Baines has started on the Pearl winter barley. The 40ha (100 acres) of Pearl cut so far had yielded 7.4t/ha (3t/acre), above average for the land near Norwich. Nitrogen was low at 1.4-1.5%, and progress was just a day or so behind last year, he said.

But further west harvest was still some three weeks away at Ian Sparey’s Tryfan Barn Farm, Clifton-on-Teme, Worcester. “We’ve only got winter wheat and spring beans and we need some good sunny weather to ripen it up,” he said.

Lioness oilseed rape was taking a long time to dry off in Warwick, and David Brightman did not expect to start harvest for almost a week.

In Berkshire, Jonathan Holland planned to start combining his Excalibur and Catana oilseed rape this weekend (26/27 July). “We had quite a late attack of cleavers which is a bit of a shame, but apart from that the crop looks good,” he said.