Harvest is making steady progress at East House Farm, Ponteland, Northumberland, with crops taking a while to ripen.

“We’ve finished the winter barley and oilseed rape, and done about half the wheat,” said James Walby.

“Yields have been about average – but that is better than we’d expected.”

Spring barley had performed well, with a mixture of malting and feed varieties grown, he added.

Progress was on par with a normal year, with other farmers in the area harvesting at a similar pace, said Mr Walby.

“We’re cutting wheat today (30 August) – we’ve had showers all week but it’s dried off quickly.”

Having finished drilling oilseed rape, Mr Walby was moving onto drilling wheat today. “The conditions are pretty good – the showers have kept it just right.”