The early stages of the 2015 harvest continued at pace this week, with about half of the winter barley completed and East Anglia's first export shipment already on its way to Europe.

Grain traders have reported initial yields well above the national average and, by next week, they expect most of the region's farmers to be turning their combines towards their oilseed rape and spring-sown barley, with the first wheat of the year following soon after.

But so far, the focus has been on winter barley.

About 4,400 tonnes was loaded onto the Citadel cargo vessel at the grain terminal at Great Yarmouth on Thursday, destined for Portugal, where it will be used for animal feed.

Ian Skinn is a barley trader at Gleadell Agriculture, the company whose £5.5m investment at the outer harbour in 2010 created the only deep-water berth for grain ships in Norfolk and Suffolk.

He said: 'What we have seen on the winter crops is some exceptional yields – anything between 8-9.5t/ha (tonnes per hectare), which is significantly higher than the five-year average for England.

'From a quality perspective we're looking pretty good. We've got no issues with moisture content. Some of the barley from the lighter land is a bit low on bushel weight, but it is well within the parameters to export to places like Spain and Portugal.'

Mr Skinn said the company was delivering barley overseas early in the season based on an estimated 'exportable surplus' of 1.48m tonnes.

The figure is derived by multiplying the planted area of barley (1,145,000 hectares across the UK), and a prediction of yield based on a five-year average (6.28t/ha for winter barley and 5.28t/ha for spring barley in England) – and then subtracting the expected domestic demand for the animal feed, brewing, distilling and food manufacturing industries.

By the weekend, another ship is due to have been loaded at Great Yarmouth, also bound for Portugal. 'It just highlights the fact that UK feed barley at the moment is competitive,' said Mr Skinn.

Adrian Fisher, a malting barley trader for farmer-owned co-operative Openfield, based at Bressingham, said considering the low levels of rainfall across much of East Anglia, the winter barley has performed well – but prices had kept low, reflecting the higher yield and strong competition from other parts of the world.

'The winter barley combined on lighter land has been of mixed quality with some lower bushel weights and higher screenings,' he said.

'The heavier land has performed well with better quality and feed barley yielding over 9t/ha in places. Prices however have fallen though, not helped by a very strong pound – ex-farm feed barley is changing hands at around or just under £100 per tonne.'

Bob King, commercial director at Crisp Malting Group in Great Ryburgh, near Fakenham, said he was happy with the grain which was arriving from the firm's 250 growers, which will be turned into malt for the world's leading brewers, distillers and food producers

'We have got low grain nitrogen, but what we are seeing so far is all usable barley,' he said.

'The ale brewers can get away with lower nitrogen, but if it is too low it will affect fermentation because there is not enough to feed the yeast.

'What we are getting at the moment is at the bottom end of where we would like to see it – it seems to be fractionally lower than last year, but it is all usable.

'I think there will be more variation in the spring barleys. We are expecting higher nitrogen in the springs, and we will start to see some of that off the lighter land next week.'

Rain still needed

The harvest is also well under way for East Anglia's vegetable and salad growers – but more rain is urgently needed for crops such as vining peas.

Tim Mudge, commercial manager for the British Growers Association, said progress so far had been good, but the unpredictability of the weather meant it was impossible to predict how successful the season would be.

'Every grower across the country has been affected by the cold spring, so our harvest started a lot later than usual and we are right in the middle of it,' he said. 'So far the quality is good and most people are happy with the way things are progressing, but it is far too early to say what the end result will be.

'Our growers in East Anglia are working incredibly hard to produce the best fresh produce but, as with so many other crops, the weather in the next 10-14 days will affect how we can harvest and how late crops develop.'

Richard Hirst, who farms at Ormesby near Yarmouth, and is chairman of Anglian Pea Growers started harvesting peas on June 28 – but he said the success of the entire season would be governed by the weather during the next week.

'Peas are very affected by the weather, and we desperately need some rain in the next three or four days for the later crops,' he said. 'But we are about 60pc through at the moment and up until now the quality has been very good.'

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