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The recent dry weather has been a godsend. Combines have been flat out here in the North West over the last two weeks. Grass silage harvesting has been equally as busy and we noticed the drills are coming out.

Harriet Bartlett is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge and a recently appointed NFU Student and Young Farmer Ambassador. She is based in Epping, Essex.

Harvest finished on September 9 which is not too late but with its stop start nature and slow pace we were all pleased to finally finish.

Writing this in mid-September after another harvest is complete, I, like many growers, find myself reflecting on the growing year just passed.

Harvest finished for us on September 11, three days later than last year, which was not a bad result considering where we were approaching the end of August. It was a very stop start affair this year, as it was for most in our part of the country, and it never really felt like we got going.

I was in Scotland last week, trying to catch the fish of 10,000 casts or so Ian the gillie told me after I blanked.

Harvest is all but finished here in North Yorkshire, the last few stragglers of spring barley are to be mopped up while spring beans are just about ready to cut.Ìý In all, yields are what we expected. Need I say any more?

Oats were the worst hit, with up to 50% of the grain on the floor; a shame when they were looking such a good alternative wheat break. Still, we must never make decisions on a single season.

Its always a nice feeling to be finished harvest regardless of how it has gone and, with our 2020 efforts concluding yesterday (September), we have shaved a week off our usual date - helped along last week by some glorious windy days allowing very early starts.

Once ELMs has run its course, the next scheme to be dreamed up by our acronym-loving leaders will be the Complete Rewilding of Agricultural Property Scheme, says Neil Farmer, an arable and sheep farmer from the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border.