THE NFU expects this year’s wheat harvest will be the biggest on record.

Its annual harvest survey showed a six per cent increase from 8.6 tonnes per hectare in 2014 to 9.1t/ha this year.

Even with a reported decrease in area planted, it estimates UK total wheat production will be 16.68m/t for 2015, compared to 16.61m/t last year.

Mike Hambly, NFU combinable crops board chairman, said the record yield appeared to paint an optimistic picture for arable farming, but there were some caveats.

He said: "It is great news to see the nation has had such a successful harvest for wheat. However, in a global context we have seen a sequence of good harvests and grain stocks are currently comfortable.

"Cereal prices are global and like most commodities are currently low. We’ve already seen prices take a 30 per cent tumble over the past two years – similar to our friends in the dairy sector – and costs of production staying put. Many growers face the prospect that grain prices will fail to cover the cost of production.

"For some this will be the second year they have endured such a situation and with forward prices for next harvest also below cost of production some could see no profit from those crops for three consecutive seasons."

Mr Hambly said the government could help by looking closely at how regulation impacts arable farmers.

"This includes the Department for Transport on their UK cap on crops used for biofuels to bring them back into line with EU targets and the Financial Conduct Authority on essential access to the futures markets for coping with volatile prices," he said.

"We are also encouraging Defra to support our calls for access to the plant protection products that safeguard our yields from loss to disease, weed and pest competition; and for a review of EU fertiliser tariffs that we believe are driving production costs up."

Mr Hambly added that grain analysis results were encouraging.

Most quality crops were harvested before excessive rain and met specifications for milling and malting.

"However, we are aware some growers in certain areas did suffer deterioration in quality with harvesting delayed by the wet weather in August causing their crops to fail to meet some processors requirements, leading to a consequent downgrading to a lower specification and reduction in price," he said.

"The value of the cereals sector has more than doubled in the past five years to nearly £3.5bn. The importance of our part in producing food for the nation, contributing to the economy and creating jobs cannot be underrated."

The NFU survey also estimates the winter barley yield to be 7.5t/ha (7.2t/h in 2014); spring barley at 5.9t/ha, similar to last year; oilseed rape at 3.8t/ha (3.6t/ha in 2014).