Spring barley is being cut ahead of of winter wheat on James Peck’s Cambridgeshire farm and showing a good yields of 7.5-8t/ha.

Mr Peck had cut some wheat for a neighbour but his first crop ready to cut on his own 2,400ha of cropping was the spring malting variety Planet which he start combining on Friday 21 July.

The grain was a little damp at the start of combining, but Mr Peck argues malting barley needs to be cut while it is still standing.

See also: Harvest 2017: Lincolnshire barley harvest a ‘mixed bag’

“We are hoping for a 7.5-8t/ha, and if it does 9t/ha I will take all the staff to the pub,” he told Farmers Weekly.

Watch the video of the start of the spring barley harvest at PX Farms below.

Despite growing the crop on heavish chalky boulder clay he has met the low nitrogen needs of the malting industry for the last four years due largely to improved modern spring malting varieties, he added.

He is growing the variety Planet, following sugar beet, on the 2,400ha of land he farms based at Scotland Farm, Dry Drayton, some four miles west of Cambridge.