Harvest is progressing rapidly near Great Tey, Colchester, Essex, where Peter Fairs has already cut 40ha of oilseed rape and is now starting on winter barley.

“It’s all happening rather suddenly and quickly – we didn’t really expect to be going quite this early,” he said.

The Excalibur oilseed rape, which had been swathed, had yielded a rather disappointing 3t/ha – although the later fields were better at just over 3.7t/ha.

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“We’ve got about two days left in the rape, and are starting winter barley today (16 July),” added Mr Fairs.

“It’s got rather a lot of blackgrass in it, so we haven’t got any great hopes for that.”

Winter wheat, however, looked well; and would be ready in 7-10 days. “We’ve sprayed off some peas and others are changing very quickly,” he said.

“It’s nice to be making an early start, although it’s slightly annoying we can’t cut hedges as early as we used to.”

Mr Fairs reckoned around 50% of the oilseed rape in the area was now in the barn. “Some people have finished and others are just starting,” he said. “The sun is just coming out now, so we should be back on within the next couple of hours.”