Harvest progress in the UK

Data collected up to 24 August (week 7)

Harvest 2026 is now into its latter stages, with the main areas left in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and to a lesser extent Northern England. Harvesting is now wrapped up in Wales and much of England.

As the harvest moves further north, the speed of progress has been slowed by wet weather in Scotland and the North of England. This movement north has coincided with a rise in crop moisture levels.

Overall yields remain disappointing and highly variable, reflecting another season in which rainfall has been limited since spring.

However, there are signs of improvement as harvest advances in the north of the UK and Scotland.

Nonetheless, the variability of this year’s harvest is considerable. Several factors appear to be contributing to these differences, including:

• Soil type and its ability to retain moisture
• Drilling date
• Use of organic fertilisers
• Previous cropping history
• Variety choice and seed type
• Specific local weather conditions

As a result, farm performance has varied significantly, with some growers achieving yields close to, or even above, their long-term average, while many have seen substantial reductions.

The quality of this year’s crop is also highly variable; this will make managing the crop in store more challenging this year.

AHDB’s harvest toolkit for cereals and oilseeds includes advice on sampling and top tips on contracts, which may be useful.

Table 1. Harvest progress and yields reported up to 24 August (week 7)

¹ Historical yields include both winter and spring oilseed rape

² Excludes Northern Ireland 

³ There has been a wide range in farm performance. Reported yields ranged from 4.4-11.0t/ha for winter barley, 2.4-4.9t/ha for winter oilseed rape, 3.9-11.5t/ha for winter wheat, 2.0-9.3t/ha for oats and 2.2-7.6t/ha for spring barley. This variation highlights the differing growing conditions experienced across regions and farm types during the season.

Source: AHDB, data captured by The Andersons Centre (2026), Defra (historical yields)

The variability of this year’s spring barley crop so far cannot be overstated. 

The yield for crops harvested to date has increased since the last report due to larger areas being cut in Scotland and the northern England, where sampled yields have been higher.  However, the current estimate still represents a conservable fall (-19%) from the UK five-year average.

This interactive tool helps show the progress of harvesting winter barley, winter oilseed rape, winter wheat, oats and spring barley across the UK. It also shows national quality and yield information reported to date.

How to use the dashboard

• Use the drop-down menus at the top of the dashboard to select a harvest week and crop. This will allow you to view the national harvested area for that crop (top chart) as well as a regional breakdown (right-hand chart)
• National quality and yield information (left-hand table) is also available for all crops alongside harvest progress comments (map in the centre)
• The line chart below them tracks national harvest progress for the selected crop, compared to previous years
• Use the drop-down menus at the top of the second line chart to view the harvest progress of a particular crop (or all crops) throughout the selected season

Week numbers

These reports include a week number, which helps you compare between years. This is the number of weeks from mid-July, when harvest “typically” starts. In 2026, week 1 is the week ending Monday 13 July.

About the data

The 2026 data is collected on behalf of AHDB by The Andersons Centre. 

The harvest progress and yield information are from a survey of 60 farms across the UK, which cover approx. 38,500 ha in total.

The sample is chosen to represent the mix of crops (wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape) by region/country; more widely grown crops and higher-producing regions have more coverage.

The farmers in the survey report their yields so far and their farm’s five-year average yield for each crop. The percentage difference between the farmers' reported yield and their five-year averages is applied to the five-year average yield reported by Defra.

Yields are adjusted where moisture is above 14.5% for cereals and 8% for oilseed rape. Moisture levels below 14.5% and 8% are not adjusted.

Information on the quality of the crops is provided by a panel of merchants.

Next report

The final report report of 2026 is planned for 25 September 2026, though this date may change depending on harvest progress and the weather. 

Recommended List harvest results

These reports are separate from AHDB’s Recommended Lists (RL) harvest data, which shows the results from their variety trials.

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