Cars are under water and bales are floating down the river at AJ Duncan Farms’ Muirden Farm, Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

“The roads are shut – it’s a bit of a disaster,” said farms manager Sandy Norrie.

Fortunately, the fields affected had either been combined or were waiting to be drilled. “We’ve got to count our blessings.”

Harvest progress had actually gone reasonably well, and Mr Norrie had finished all the spring barley, winter barley and oilseed rape.

He had also drilled 364ha (900 acres) of oilseed rape and 222ha (550 acres) of winter barley. “We’re well ahead of last year – but this will obviously hold us back now.”

The 17ha (43 acres) of Viscount winter wheat which Mr Norrie had cut so far, at 20% moisture, performed extremely well on a poor farm, yielding 11.1t/ha (4.5t/acre).

“I’m anticipating big wheat crops compared to last year.”

The organic Alchemy had produced the best organic yield the farm had ever had, at 5.7t/ha (2.3t/acre).

Oxbridge and Publican spring barley had averaged 7.7t/ha (3.1t/acre) and would be going for malting and seed, he said.

Winter barley averaged 9.5t/ha (3.85t/acre), with many crops coming in over 9.9t/ha (4t/acre).

But it was oilseed rape that had been the crop of the year so far, averaging 4.7t/ha (1.9t/acre). “Temple did over 2t/acre (5t/ha), and even Mendel managed 1.8t/acre (4.5t/ha).”

That left 485ha (1200 acres) of organic and conventional wheat and oats to cut, said Mr Norrie. “Nothing is quite ripe yet.”

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Viscount
Area: 17ha (43 acres)
Yield: 11.1t/ha (4.5t/acre)

Variety: Alchemy (organic)
Yield: 5.7t/ha (2.3t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Varieties: Oxbridge and Publican
Yield: 7.7t/ha (3.1t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Varieties: Pelican/Pearl blend, Siberia and Volume
Area: 800ha (2000 acres)
Yield: 9.5t/ha (3.85t/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Varieties: Mendel and Temple
Area: 283ha (700 acres)
Yield: 4.7t/ha (1.9t/acre)