More acres of winter crop will be cut in the coming weeks than last year, according to figures released by AHDB.

The early harvest of 2018 has resulted in a swing towards more winter barley and wheat, particularly in the north of Scotland.

Winter barley is up 23% in northern Scotland and 11% in the south of the country, with wheat up 12% and 1% respectively.

Spring barley has fallen 2% in northern Scotland and 7% in southern Scotland. Oil seed rape also fell by 15% and 1% in the two areas, with AHDB blaming “challenging agronomics and pest pressure” for the decline.

These patterns were also reflected across the rest of Great Britain. The total area of cereals and oilseeds in Scotland and England remained fairly static at 452,000ha and 3.1m hectares respectively.

Malting barley makes up 69% of the Scottish crop, with 31% going towards animal feed.

Some combines in the south of Scotland have already started cutting high-moisture barley for crimping.