Rob Bebbington has made a start on harvest at Fieldfare Farms, Whitchurch, Shropshire, but is on hold again now waiting for crops to ripen.

“We cut some winter barley but it wasn’t really ready and was difficult to thrash, so we pulled out of it again,” he said.

“It was the same story on oilseed rape – it was sprayed off two weeks ago but it’s just not quite ready.”

The Cassia winter barley yielded over 7.4t/ha, which was good, but the rapeseed had almost 10% admixture and had to be cleaned, said Mr Bebbington.

“After cleaning, it did about 3.3t/ha, which I suppose isn’t too bad considering the season.”

With showers in the area today (12 August), Mr Bebbington wasn’t too worried about the hold-up.

“We’re champing at the bit, but everything is two weeks late, so it’s not spoiling.”

Although he had redrilled 24ha of winter wheat with spring barley, the rest of the wheat didn’t look too bad, he said. “It looks a lot better than it did in the spring.

“I’ve sold some forward, but probably should have sold a lot more.”

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Cassia
Area: 12ha
Yield: >7.4t/ha

Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: PR46W21
Area: 12ha
Yield: 3.3t/ha