Kent farmer Bill Harbour was pleased to have got all his wheat in the barn last week, but 50mm (two inches) of rain this morning threatened his swathed echium and borage crops.

“We don’t normally finish wheat until the end of August – I hardly knew what to do with myself at the weekend,” he said.

Crops of Xi19 and Solstice wheat averaged 10.4t/ha (4.2t/acre) across the 180ha (445 acres), although yields varied from over 10t/ha (4t/acre) to below 6t/ha (2.4t/acre). “The samples looked nice and the bushel weight was good,” he said.

Mr Harbour had also harvested 30ha (74 acres) of Kahuna peas at 3.3t/ha (1.4t/acre) but was waiting for his spring beans to ripen before going into them. “We’ve also got 14ha (35 acres) of echium and 26ha (64 acres) of borage in the swath.

Crop: winter wheat
Area: 180ha (445 acres)
Varieties: Xi 19 and Solstice
Yield: 10.4t/ha (4.2t/acre)