Plenty to do in Aberdeenshire

Farmers still have about 40% of their spring barley and more of their wheat to cut near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.


Nick Davidson at Clola Farms, Milton of Clola, said very little wheat had been cut in the area.

“And there’s still spring barley out there which is green – it just hasn’t ripened, even where it’s been sprayed off.

“Some combines were cutting at 30% moisture on Sunday, but others haven’t been out for 10 days,” he said.

“We’re just left with 20ha (50 acres) of Riband wheat, which we tried at 28% a week ago, and can’t get at now.

“We’ve had heavy rain almost every day since and I’m beginning to wonder if we should have taken it then.”

However, the crops were not coming to any harm yet, he added. And yields had been reasonable across the board.

A Sequel / Pearl blend of winter barley yielded about average, at just over 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre).

Oxbridge spring barley yielded well at 6.9t/ha (2.8t/acre). “It’s perfect malting quality, at 1.4% nitrogen an 1% screenings, but it’s all sold for feed, as the malting price was £2/t below feed,” said Mr Davidson.

“Oilseed rape amazed me this year – it looked absolutely awful over the winter, but it’s yielded the best we’ve ever had.”

Mendel averaged 4.6t/ha (1.85t/acre), with Cracker at 4t/ha (1.6t/acre).

With a poor forecast for this week, Mr Davidson did not expect to be combining again until next week. “But it’s not November, so it’s not desperate yet.”


Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Oxbridge
Yield: 6.9t/ha (2.8t/acre)


Crop: Winter barley
Varieties: Sequel and Pearl
Yield: 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre)


Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Mendel
Yield: 4.6t/ha (1.85t/acre)


Variety: Cracker
Yield: 4t/ha (1.6t/acre)


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