Grower and seed producer Richard Monk has seen high winter barley yields of more than 11t/ha from his crop this year.

Earlier this week he harvested 18.5ha of Glacier which weighed in at 11.5t/ha.

It was a first winter barely which followed a crop of linseed, meanwhile a second barley crop of the same variety also yielded at 10t/ha average.

In total, Mr Monk has 40.8ha of Glacier, 46.5ha of Tower and 50.7ha of Maris Otter malting barley.

Mr Monk is based in Stockbridge, Hampshire, and sells the majority of its winter barley to merchant Pearce Seeds.

See also: Early indications of high barley yields for 2015 harvest

Mr Monk said: “It is certainly a very pleasing year for us.

“We first had Glacier in 2013 and I remember it pushing 8t/ha and then higher again in 2014.”

The farm’s winter barley yields have risen substantially in recent years. 

Last year Mr Monk was pleased with 9t/ha yields from his two-rows – both Glacier and Tower doing well.

Three years ago he was happy with yields of 7.5t/ha from the likes of Cassia and Cassata.

“We are still using around 170-180kg/ha N now as we did three years ago, so not pushing crops as some do at about 200kg/ha N,” he added.

Cropping also includes winter oilseed rape, winter oats, beans, linseed and poppies.

Soils are mostly light chalk land and Mr Monk said only the spring crops were showing very slight signs of drought.

Conventional winter oilseed rape crops were desiccated two weeks ago and are now ready for harvest, while seed crops are left to ripen naturally.