Wheat and barley yields rose during heatwave harvest - despite drought

Defra's provisional estimates for England's 2022 harvest show cereal production rising 9.4pc to almost 21m tonnes, with higher yields across all the main crops compared to 2021.

Its report says: "The prolonged dry conditions through summer led to an exceptional early harvest and lower than normal moisture content in the harvested crops."

The wheat harvest is estimated at 14.4m tonnes, an increase of 12pc on 2021, driven by an 11pc increase in yield to 8.6 tonnes per hectare, and an 0.8pc increase in planted area.

Barley production rose by 6.6pc to 5.2m tonnes, as a 20pc increase in winter barley production was partly offset by a 5pc fall in spring-sown crops - although yields increased for both.

And oilseed rape production leapt by 43pc to 1.2m tonnes, due to a 19pc average yield increase across a 20pc larger planted area.

Andrew Dewing, chief executive of Aylsham-based grain trader Dewing Grain, said: "There was a shortage of rain - but some critical rain in lots of areas just at the right moment, and fabulous ultraviolet light from the sun gave really good kilo weights where the land had the moisture. That has really boosted yields.

"The developing plant has had everything at optimum when it came to the grain fill. There was no rain at harvest time, no deterioration of grain weights, and then the crop came to fitness and stood there day after day waiting to be harvested in perfectly dry conditions."

For East Anglia's famed malting barley, Mr Dewing said there had been a very high acceptance rate for grain meeting the quality specification for the brewing industry.

"The barley has been fabulous," he said. "The only discrepancy we had was a few spring barley samples which didn't get enough moisture, and there were some issues with people going to sustainable farming and trying to shift to lighter cultivations - some of the crops had a mixture of another cereal, so we had some volunteer wheat in barley samples which took it away from malting quality.

"But predominantly it was a much bigger acceptance rate and very good quality malting barley."

Aylsham-based grain trader Andrew Dewing (Image: Dewing Grain)

Mr Dewing said it was important to note that this year's figures are compared to 2021's yields, when a poor previous autumn prompted the planting of more lower-yielding spring crops.

He added that prices continued to be affected by the war in Ukraine, a major grain producing region.

Wheat which was £209 per tonne before Russia's invasion in February rose to a peak of £360 in May, but then fell to around £250 in mid-August before recent escalations in the conflict pushed the price back upwards, he said.