An unexpected rain shower this morning means farmers won’t be combining much today (26 July) near Shrewton, Wiltshire.

Nick Brown, store manager at Wiltshire Grain, said farmers were less than halfway through winter barley and oilseed rape harvest.

“We’ve barely started – we’ve only got about 5000t in so far, and that’s mainly Cassata barley and oilseed rape.”

Barley yields were about average, and rapeseed yields were better than expected, he said.

“But quality is very variable – nitrogen contents range from 1.57% to 2.3%, and anything in between.”

Screenings were good, but some crops were proving difficult to thrash, which was lowering bushelweights to about 62kg/hl.

“That will increase towards 70kg/hl once the crops become easier to thrash.”

One member was expecting to be into winter wheat towards the end of the week, with another likely to combine spring barley tomorrow.

However, the majority of crops were still some way off, he added.