Farmers have cut about 20% of their wheat in the Cambridgeshire area, with reasonable but not exceptional results.

According to Rob Munro, marketing director at Fengrain, milling protein contents were slightly on the low side, at 11.5-12.5%, and yields were better than expected.

“It makes a pleasant change to see wheat that looks as it should, after last year,” he said. “So far harvest has been relatively trouble free – most crops are coming in at 14.5-16% moisture so don’t need a lot of drying.”

Yields were probably slightly above average – but given that the earliest deliveries would be first wheats, overall results would probably fall away later on, he added.

Oilseed rape yields were no better than average, but considering how bad the crops looked in February, most farmers were pleased with that, said Mr Munro.

There’s a surprising amount of winter rape left to cut – I think we’re going to get three rape harvests – early and late winter rape followed by the spring crop.”

Oil contents had been reasonable, and Fengrain had not seen any problems with green or red seeds, he added. “But there is a bit of an issue with admixtures, which are definitely higher than they should be.”

Barley was likely to be crop of the year, with some phenomenal malting quality in both winter and spring varieties, said Mr Munro.

“Yields are above average, but we haven’t seen any later drilled crops yet. While you can’t make assumptions on the first 10 days of harvest, my gut feeling is that we’ve seen the best of all the crops.”