England set for its second worst harvest yields

> Crops are gathered on Romney Marsh near Ashford, Kent in August - data from Defra suggests England's 2025 harvest will be far worse than had previously been forecast

- REBECCA SPEARE-COLE

ENGLAND has seen its second worst harvest on record, according to an analysis of Government figures.

Farmers have been reaping crops after the country’s hottest spring and summer on record as well as the driest spring in more than 100 years, with five regions remaining in official drought.

Provisional data from the Environment Department (Defra) released on Thursday suggests a much worse harvest than experts had so far predicted.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) estimated yields of 7.6 tonnes per hectare for wheat, 6.7 tonnes for winter barley, 5.8 tonnes for spring barley, 5.2 tonnes for oats and 3.7 tonnes for oilseed rape.

However, Defra's figures show yields to be lower than these estimates across all these crops with 7.0 tonnes for wheat, 6.5 tonnes for winter barley, 5.0 tonnes for spring barley, 4.6 tonnes for oats and 3.5 tonnes for oilseed rape.

This puts 2025 as the second worst harvest on record, according to an analysis of the Defra figures by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).