It has been a mix bag of results so far for Scottish cereal farmers with poor weather throughout the harvest season.
The fifth wettest summer since records began has brought with it mixture of fortunes for Scotland’s arable farmers.
Some are worried they won’t be able to finish up before the end of the season while others are reporting some of their best yields in years.
NFU Scotland’s Combinable Crops Chairman, Ian Sands, said: “Harvest so far in Perthshire has been very stop start with the past week being mostly stop. Oil seed rape has yielded well as has the spring barley and it has been of good quality. I would say it is the best yielding l have ever had.
“I have only cut just over 100 acres of wheat so far but it seems to be yielding well, although we are now really needing the weather to improve or quality might start to become a worry. All in all, harvest is going well but we need the weather to improve or things could end on a bad note.
“Also, most grain has cut at a higher moisture than usual which has meant higher drying costs.”
In the Highlands, many have managed to finish their spring barley, wheat and oilseed rape, with good yields overall, and relatively low moisture considering the weather.
The main concern for farmers in the north is the wet conditions causing the ground to be too wet to begin sowing for next year.
Poor weather
It is a different story in the North East, with many struggling to get their spring barley cut on time, no thanks to the poor weather last week at a crucial time.
Quality has also seemed to fall away because of the long wait to start harvesting, coming through uneven ripening in areas, despite starting harvest strongly early in the season.
Further south to Forth and Clyde and Ayrshire, the real effects of the poor weather are seen with many farmers preparing themselves for salvage jobs if the weather does not improve soon.
Farmers in these areas are reporting harvest is at a complete standstill, with combines not getting out since the start of last week, and are beginning to become concerned that they will not manage to string two or three good days together.
Lothian and the Borders is very much the same with many struggling to get going over the last weeks. Those that have managed to get most of their harvest in are reporting decent yields, hitting around or above the average.
Common ground amongst the regions seems to be the concern for sowing next year’s crops with such wet ground conditions being seen across the board.
