Persistent wet weather has put paid to any hopes of an early start, but most crops are still looking good. It is only oilseed rape has been badly knocked about in some places.
"It's all becoming more than a little worrying," said Mike Hambly, the chairman of the South West regional arable board of the National Farmers' Union as steady drizzle continued. "The weather seriously does need to start brightening up, and soon, or we really shall have problems.
"You could get depressed, but this weather has gone on that long that you feel it must turn soon," said Mr Hambly, who farms at Callington, South East Cornwall.
He said farmers could probably look forward to a reasonable, though late, harvest if the poor weather persisted for another week or so, but after that the situation could become extremely concerning.
Sodden ground needed time to dry out so that machinery could be used on it to get in the harvest, he stressed.
First crop to be harvested is usually winter-sown barley, then oilseed rape. But Mr Hambly did not expect the main winter barley harvest to start for another week or ten days, very late this year compared to what was expected these days. While much of the oilseed rape "lodging" problems (being blown over) involved crops further east than the Westcountry, it seemed unlikely any would be harvested in the South West much before the first week in August. Harvesting of wheat crops had been pushed back to the middle of August, said Mr Hambly.
"The situation with wheat is exemplified by prices on the market for old-crop grain, which have 'gone through the roof' in the past few weeks," he added. "The main problem with wet weather is that quality is compromised."
About half of all winter-sown oilseed rape crops nationally have been affected by lodging, according to the Agricultural Development Advisory Service.
Neil Groom, of specialist oilseed rape company Grainseed, said there was a high degree of lodging around the country. "Unsurprisingly with high rainfall and high winds that have been an unwanted characteristic of this year's spring and summer weather, we are seeing much more lodging this year than we have seen for many years," he said.
The harvest threat is ironic as the planted area nationally in England is up 3% this year, as a result of good "forward" prices, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
Its survey shows the total acreage back to the record level of 2008.
