So far the harvest has been somewhat of a mixed bag for Scottish farmers according to NFUS’ latest update. The severe shortage of rain during the past few months has had a significant impact on straw. So far, winter barley and oilseed rape harvests have been nearly completed in most parts while starts have also been made on wheat and spring barley crops. However, with conditions broken these harvests have yet to kick off in earnest.

Lorna Paterson, NFU Scotland regional manager, northeast

Aberdeenshire is slightly ahead of last year in terms of winter barleys. Yields are very varied across the region – between 1.2t/ac to 3.7t/ac. Crops have not needed much drying either, so this is a plus. Straw yields, in the main, have been pretty good. Oilseed rape is now swathed generally, but only one harvested so far, with yields not great at under one tonne per acre.

Spring barley and winter wheats are ripening well. There is no data from harvested crops yet as spring barley is just being burnt off at present.

There have been concerns about few tillers with less plants from each seed, so there is potential for less of a yield when combined, but hopefully good bold grains.

There are also concerns about secondary growth, but time will tell how this has gone.

Tatties are growing remarkably well in the region and have suffered less disease than normal years. Rain has arrived here now so this could save the tubers and allow for a stronger yield and bigger tubers.

Iain Wilson, Tullich Farms, Howe O’ the Mearns, Laurencekirk

To date, we have finished cutting 150ac of winter barley and 160ac of winter oats. Winter barley yielded slightly above average, while oats were a tremendous yield. Both were at very low moisture – so a very positive start to harvest.

We have probably sold more of the straw off both winter barley and winter oats than we normally would. However, I would say this is more down to the fact harvest is early which has meant a decent gap between cutting and then needing in with the plough for sowing oilseed rape, rather than the straw shortage.

Our thoughts on baling or chopping straw will be the same this year as any other. If the weather is good and we see a chance for neighbours to bale good, dry straw quickly then they will be given the chance. If it’s showery and wet, we will chop as our number-one priority is to have fields cleared in time to plough and sow next year’s crops. We can’t risk this being held up by straw lying, no matter what its value may be. We do have existing arrangements with neighbours who get all the straw from land destined for spring cropping in a straw-for-muck deal, so they will get the same acres of straw as usual on the same deal as previous years.

Sandy Henderson, Little Ythsie Farm, Tarves, Ellon

We started winter barley on 23 July which is earlier than normal. The crop has been reasonably good.

Straw was less than normal in quantity but grain was surprisingly decent. We also finished oilseed rape last week with the crop again surprisingly decent particularly for dry matter.

We will be starting winter wheat which we are expecting to be very short in terms of straw yield.

The ground is very dry with us and we will need some moisture before oilseed rape germinates. By the end of the week we will be starting to drill oilseed rape, sowing winter barley and we should have a bit more time on our hands than last year.

This year we have baled oilseed rape straw to use ourselves but also sell to one or two people locally. We would normally chop rape straw

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Cameron MacIver, Wester Coltfield, Forres

Spring barleys have started in Morayshire a good 10 days ahead of normal with moisture low at 15%, nitrogen higher at 1.6% and above average screenings.

The straw yield is a lot better than expected with the grain yield back a good half tonne per acre. It’s a case for us that any good land that held moisture is yielding very well. However, anything that suffered from the drought is rubbish.

Willie Thomson, Wheatrig, East Lothian

Winter oilseed rape has done 3.8t/ha which is about 0.4t/ha back on average.

We have also made a start to some continuous wheat which is also well back on average at about 7t/ha. Other wheat which is still to cut looks to have much better potential.

Kelvin Pate, East Lothian

Winter barley yields are back half a tonne on heavy ground, but even more so on poor ground. Straw yield is also well back on last year. Harvest started much earlier than previous years and we are already cutting wheat as it has died on its feet in the heat. All my straw is baled away from home. My spring barley is getting sprayed off next week. We have never baled wheat straw so dry (6%) with baling 12 hours behind the combine. I have baled nearly twice the area to get enough straw and to be sure not to run out compared with last year.

Neil White, Berwickshire

Winter barley was around or just below average but with bold, dry grains and good quality. The oilseed rape seems very good so far, difficult to cut but with lots cut in this area and again bold seed and dry crops have been helping everything. Wheat is being cut with some early farms well through what looks like good to very good crops with bold dry grain and a reasonable but not huge amount of straw. Lots of farmers are swathing straw which would normally be chopped, and the early dry start means the baling is going well so far. Straw will remain at a premium price as the unprecedented demand will gobble up any extra out there. We say this is like an “English harvest” with very little drying required and hot sunny days, but it could change. The forecast says rain is on its way but, if we don’t get too much, the harvest could remain well ahead of schedule.

John Smith, Drumalea, Kintyre

Very little crop in the area with our focus largely on grassland. With Kintyre in the spring being cold and wet, like most other places in Scotland, it left our first-cut silage below normal yield, but it was however drier than normal. The second cuts were good and third cuts where normal fertiliser rates were used are looking ok.

As we speak ground conditions are firm so will probably look towards next week to chop.

David Scarth, Orkney

Orkney being livestock-based, grass silage is our most important harvest. Mostly all finished here, with the quantity less for most but good dry matter and quality should compensate somewhat. Some second cuts left to do are looking OK and we had enough rain in July to bulk up crops.

Spring barley has not yet started to be harvested but should be underway in the next few weeks. This is earlier than in previous years, but would be about when we would normally hope to get underway. At this stage, grain quality looks very good but straw would be shorter than hoped for. As always, weather over the next month will determine how successful harvest turns out to be, but with hopefully an earlier start to harvest there should be more opportunity to get crops in store successfully.

Fraser Shaw, Dryfeholm, Lockerbie

Harvest started 10 days earlier than normal, with some early spring barley on light land harvested. Yields are down but not disastrous. Straw has yielded well in the winter crops and the price remains firm. Some rape straw has been baled where weather has allowed.

The weather has been kind and allowed for a speedy harvest but has meant that wheat and spring barley in particular has suffered.

As for potatoes, there has been no harvest started to my knowledge as most of the local crop is grown for the ware market but again the shortage of rain will have a big impact on the yield. The price has to increase which might mitigate some of the cost of yield reduction.

Andrew McFadzean, Dalchomie, Maybole

Most winter barley is now done in Ayrshire – two weeks earlier than normal. There has been a good sample and bushel weight and yields are back, but only just a bit. One or two growers have just started to cut spring barley but no early reports on yields. Harvesting here is likely to go on for another six weeks.

Tatties that have been irrigated are fine and main crop will be lifted in next couple of weeks.

In short

The mid-season harvest update coincides with the launch of NFU Scotland’s long-running annual Arable Crops Survey. Member information helps produce an independent estimate of crop production and increase accuracy of figures produced by the Scottish Government, Defra and the European Commission.

Growers who responded in recent years will receive a survey form and the Union’s local Group Secretaries will be looking for volunteers to complete the 2018 survey ahead of the 24 September deadline.