Harvest progress in Great Britain

This is the sixth and final report of the 2020/21 season, with data covering the period 08 September – 28 September, 2021.

The last three weeks have been largely settled, with warm and dry weather across most of England, Wales and Scotland. These favourable conditions have enabled many to clear the fields of the final crops and finish harvest. There have been a few coastal areas, particularly in the North East that were affected by showers, heavy dews and sea frets shortening harvest windows. Despite that, harvest has progressed well for most.

The final crops coming in from the fields over the last three weeks have been at, or very near storage moisture, thanks to the warm and late summer sunshine. Farmers in the North of England have been the exception, having to dry crops that were harvested between the showers. Some farmers have still lightly used the drier to remove chaff and polish up the grains. 

Winter wheat harvest has drawn to a close in the UK, which other than in 2016 (98%) and 2017 (96%), is usual for this point in harvest. The Scottish winter wheat harvest has been unusually early for the region this year, with wheat crops often cleared before spring barley.

Both the winter barley and the winter oilseed rape harvests were complete by week 9 of harvest (7 September).

The spring barley harvest stands at 97% complete nationally. This is 2 percentage points above the five-year average and 3 percentage points behind last years completed harvest at this point. Harvest is complete in southern and central England, with small pockets left to clear in northern England and Scotland.

Both winter and spring oats harvests are now largely complete. The occasional field in Scotland and the North East remains to be cleared. This is in line with the five-year average.

Harvest progress to 28 September can be summarised as:

Winter wheat – 100% complete. Yields currently estimated at 8.0-8.2t/ha.

Winter barley – 100% complete. Yields currently estimated at 6.9-7.1t/ha.

Spring barley – 97% complete. Yields currently estimated at 5.9-6.3t/ha.

Oats – 99% complete. Yields currently estimated at 5.5-5.8t/ha.

Winter OSR – 100% complete. Yields currently estimated at 3.3-3.5t/ha.

• 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). The line chart tracks national harvest progress, for the selected crop, compared to previous years.

• Use the drop down menus at the top of the second chart to view the harvest progress, of a particular crop, throughout the season.

2021

• Harvest Progress Report 6 (w/e 30 Sept)
• Harvest Progress Report 5 (w/e 7 Sept)
• Harvest Progress Report 4 (w/e 24 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 3 (w/e 17 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 2 (w/e 10 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 1 (w/e 27 Jul)

• Harvest Progress Report 6 (w/e 06 Oct)
• Harvest Progress Report 5 (w/e 22 Sep)
• Harvest Progress Report 4 (w/e 08 Sep)
• Harvest Progress Report 3 (w/e 18 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 2 (w/e 11 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 1 (w/e 28 Jul)

• Harvest Progress Report 5 (w/e 10 Sep)
• Harvest Progress Report 4 (w/e 27 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 3 (w/e 20 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 2 (w/e 13 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 1 (w/e 30 Jul)

• Harvest Progress Report 6 (w/e 25 Sep)
• Harvest Progress Report 5 (w/e 28 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 4 (w/e 14 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 3 (w/e 7 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 2 (w/e 31 Jul)
• Harvest Progress Report 1 (w/e 24 Jul)

• Harvest Progress Report 6 (w/e 26 Sep)
• Harvest Progress Report 5 (w/e 5 Sep)
• Harvest Progress Report 4 (w/e 22 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 3 (w/e 15 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 2 (w/e 1 Aug)
• Harvest Progress Report 1 (w/e 18 Jul)

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