Michael Manners has finished harvest at Conicliffe Grange, Staindrop, Darlington, and is pretty pleased with his yields.

“Considering how bad it looked earlier on, we’re really quite happy,” he said. “It’s been a pain swapping from wheat to oilseed rape and back all the time, but with the decent weather, harvest has really been pretty easy.”

Eraton and Marcant high erucic oilseed rape yielded 3.2t/ha, said Mr Manners. “It wasn’t great, but then we didn’t expect much.”

But wheat was far better, averaging 9.9t/ha across a mixture of Viscount and Santiago, and a little bit of Relay and Grafton.

“The Santiago was the best, which was surprising considering it went into less than ideal conditions after potatoes,” he added.

Waggon spring barley was also pleasing, averaging 7.7t/ha.

With most of the rapeseed drilled for next year, Mr Manners was pleased to be back on track after last year’s disaster.

“The potatoes look as good now as they looked bad last year – hopefully we’ll get the extra third we lost last season.”

The rape drilled before the Bank Holiday downpours had come up surprisingly well, he added. “But the later drilled seed could do with a bit of rain, now.”

Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Viscount and Santiago
Yield: 9.9t/ha

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Eraton and Marcant
Yield: 3.2t/ha

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Waggon
Yield: 7.7t/ha