Berkshire grower Colin Rayner was one of the first farmers in the UK to take his first cut of winter wheat this season – despite a delay of 25 days from the normal start.

Mr Rayner, a director at J Rayner & Sons, who runs an 810ha farm near Windsor, said he and his team harvested about 100t of wheat on Monday (2 August) and a further 100t the following day.

The wheat was cut at a moisture content of 21% and was put through the farm’s grain dryer to reduce it to 14% before it was sold to a local grain merchant.

See also: Harvest 2021: Yields holding up well despite the wet weather

“People say I shouldn’t panic, but there is a lot of investment in the field,” said Mr Rayner.

“We only cut enough to keep the dryer going for 24 hours. The best thing was it reduced my stress levels by about 1,000% when I saw a bit of wheat going through the grain barn.”

Mr Rayner predicted that yields would be average, but there were no official figures yet. “During April and May, the crop didn’t get the uptake of nitrogen it needed,” he explained.

“Plus, the rain has worn out my rain gauge this year because it has been used so often. Last year, it barely rained.”

We are cutting our first winter-wheat of-this season, 25 days later than normal. It is 21% moisture. I no longer care how wet it is! We need it in the barn. @NFUBBO @FarmersWeekly pic.twitter.com/YkJv6fPOME

— Colin Rayner (@farmerrayner) August 2, 2021

Mr Rayner said in a typical year he would start cutting wheat around 7-8 July. In 2018 he completed harvest by 25 July, which shows how late this year is.

Meanwhile, wheat harvest is well under way at the 4,400ha Euston Estate, south of Thetford, north Suffolk. Farm manager Matthew Hawthorne said he started harvesting Zyatt and Skyfall varieties on Friday (30 July) on sandy land following a week of wet weather.

By Wednesday morning (4 August), 142ha of the total wheat area of 445ha had been harvested, with the grain destined for farmers’ co-operative Camgrain.

“We started at 21% moisture content and got it down to 14% by yesterday (Tuesday),” said Mr Hawthorne. “Specific weight is currently averaging 73-78kg/hl and hagbergs look good. We are really happy with yields; the lowest we have cut is 7.1t/ha and the highest is 8.3t/ha.

“We have got good straw yields and the crop has combined really easily.”

Busy weekend ahead

Many wheat growers in England are expected to start harvesting this weekend, or next week, depending on the weather.

The AHDB has forecast that for the domestic wheat crop, GB production could be pegged at 14.92m tonnes, which would be 1% below the 2015-19 average but 50% better than last season’s poor harvest.

But a wet growing season has raised concerns about crop quality and yields.