THE hop harvest in Herefordshire promises to be one of the best ever, thanks to a warm summer and a plentiful supply of rain at important times.

At Claston Farm, Dormington, the hub of hop growing in the county, workers are busy harvesting some 230 acres and so far the quality of the bumper crop has been particularly good, with few problems with pests and diseases, partly because some varieties have been developed to be disease resistant.

The Herefordshire and Worcestershire area is a now a leading area for hops with over half of Britain's hops being grown in the two counties. Kent, once a major hop-growing area, has taken a back seat with a number of growers having gone out of business.

With poor cash returns in recent years, some Herefordshire growers have been using their ground for other purposes but the market has now improved and producer Peter Davies of Claston says that farmers could certainly survive on present-day prices, provided they obtained a good yield.

He went on: "This year's crop looks very promising and the yields look to be higher than last year with the early bittering levels very good which will boost the price. And the levels normally get higher as the harvest continues.

"We have been lucky with the weather, with little or no wind, getting rain when it was needed at the end of July and early August with warm nights for the hop flowers to turn into fruit."

With weather records at Claston going back to 1881, Mr Davies should be well versed on the climate's suitability. A third of his crop are of the hedgerow variety, some of which have been pioneered on the farm, while experimenting continues there with other new varieties on some ten acres.

Claston Farm has been very much involved with experimental work, and with Edward Thompson at Pixley developing new growing techniques. As members of the Marches Hop Company, both Mr Davies and Mr Thompson together with members of the group have been instrumental in attracting European funding to help with development programmes.

This year has been a learning curve at Claston, following the installation of expensive state-of-the-art kilns.

A hedgerow hop-picking machine developed at Ledbury five years ago continues to pick twice the volume of hops as the conventional static picker. "Costs are so important nowadays," said Mr Davies.

"But you cannot afford to skimp if you want to grow a good crop. Even with the latest equipment, programming accurately is all important. We learnt a lot from the computer-controlled equipment last year and we have been building on that knowledge," said Mr Davies, who employs 15 full-time staff.

Hop picking started on September 3 and is expected to finish on October 9. When ready, the hops are sent to various parts of Europe and America and to British breweries, including Scottish Courage, Marstons and Youngs.