FARMERS are worried recent rainy weather is crippling the value of their crops.
Nottinghamshire produces 5,375 hectares of wheat crop in a year - enough to bake 62 million loaves of bread.
Despite a solid start to the year, farmers say rainfall - which reached 23mm on Monday night - is hampering the rest of this year's yield.
Peter Gadd, farmer at Hollygate Farm in Stragglethorpe and member of the East Midlands branch of the National Farmers' Union, said: "The milling variety of wheat that we have grown and spent money on during the year to hopefully get a premium is at risk.
"Because the wet weather starts to break down the quality aspects of the grain while it's still wet in the fields there will be a question mark over the suitability of the harvest."
The value of wheat is based on the Hagberg rating, which measures the elasticity of bread dough by timing how long it takes to fall.
A good score is often considered between 250 and 300 seconds but Mr Gadd said he would not be surprised to see timings drop to around 180 seconds after the recent downpours.
"With the recent rain the elasticity of the dough will be much poorer," said Mr Gadd.
He explained that poorer quality wheat which cannot be used for milling could be sold on as animal feed or to be used for other products such as biscuits.
But the going rate for animal feed is less than good quality milling wheat.
"When you add the cost of harvesting in wet weather, it starts to eat into your profit margin quite considerably," said Mr Gadd.
"Fortunately we finished our harvest around August 9 but some farmers have a later crop because they were affected by last year's three weeks of rain in September. Their crops will not be ripe yet."
Steve Hoyland, of Hoyland's Farm in Tollerton, says he could stand to lose up to £40,000 on his 250-acre land.
"We all knew the dry spell would come to an end but we wished it hadn't happened so soon," said Mr Hoyland, who is also county chairman for the National Farmers' Union in Nottinghamshire. "We need two dry days for one day of harvest and could do with a week to finish this year's harvest.
"For me, and big farms as well, such a big hit on profits affects what we can invest in for next year. That's things like fertiliser and machinery."
He added that cheap poor quality wheat from on the continent has driven prices down and that any prolonged wet spell could set back next year's production.
"Grain prices have collapsed by almost a third. Last year it was pushing £150 a ton and now it's closer to £100.
"We can't get started on next year's crop until we finish this year off. It's a bit of a log-jam. I've still got about 140-acres left between my land and some contracting work I do."
- Mr Hoyland wanted to thank the people of Nottinghamshire for "putting up" with combine harvesters on the county's roads during this year's "difficult" harvest period.
