Some long-awaited finer weather in the final week of August allowed harvest progress to ramp up, and as of September 7, 90 per cent of the UK’s winter wheat area had been harvested according to AHDB.

With 2021 oilseed rape yields pegged to sit slightly above the five-year average and prices at all-time highs, the crop has helped to redeem itself this harvest.

Rothamsted Research has been granted permission by Defra to run a series of field trials of wheat that has been genome edited.

It has been a bumper year for wild oats and an integrated approach to control is needed to get on top of the weed for next season.

Researchers working to combat cabbage stem flea beetle have been supported by a fresh injection of funds.

With improved conditions for drilling in autumn 2020 , the Defra provisional arable crop areas for England figures confirm a return to a more balanced picture for harvest 2021.

Tortoise beetles have been found in a sugar beet crop in Wissington, Norfolk.

IN Gloucestershire wheat yields have made a welcome comeback after last year’s challenges for Bibury grower Ed Horton, with some fields yielding around double what they did at harvest 2020.

The fungus responsible for light leaf spot, the UK’s most important oilseed rape disease, is becoming increasingly resistant to azole fungicides but not QoI (strobilurin) or SDHI fungicides, according to Rothamsted.

British Sugar has responded to requests for greater flexibility.