Poorer germination of seed barley is being reported in some parts of Scotland. While not across the board, there are reports of some seed barley with germination counts of below 80%.

Farmers are being urged to ensure they get all seed for planting checked to get the best established crop.

The poorer harvest conditions are being blamed for lower germination counts.

Furthermore, bad weather in the backend of 2017 meant many crops failed to get in, pushing more farmers to plant spring crops this year.

This is leading to increases in demand for spring barley seed.