Farming News - Summer rain has brought wheat harvest to 'shuddering halt' warn farmers
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Summer rain has brought wheat harvest to 'shuddering halt' warn farmers
August's wet weather has brought this year's wheat harvest to a "shuddering halt", the deputy president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) has said.
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Guy Smith said farmers outside of the south east of England had been left unable to get started on harvesting the crop due to heavy rainfall this month.
He said the wet weather had affected the quality of the crop and made it more difficult to use combine harvesters in the fields.
Mr Smith said: "It has brought the harvest to a shuddering halt for the past 10 days, outside of the south east.
"The good news is that yields seem to be above average, but the bad news is that the price is significantly on the slide, not helped because of a heavy harvest."
He said farmers in the south east managed to begin their harvest earlier due to the heat wave, while "very little" had been done in the west and north of England because of the bad weather.
"We are not quite sure what the impact is yet," Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith said about 60% to 70% of wheat is harvested between August and September in the UK.