Robert Neill finally finishes harvest

hankfully, the harvest is all finally in and all the straw has been baled. It has been a real struggle this year waiting for the clouds to clear so that the combine could get going in between rain showers.



The dryer has not stopped working all harvest, which will unfortunately lead to a rather large fuel bill.


The spring barley has all been sold for malting with not a single load being rejected, which is unusual. Having sold all of the spring barley we will probably be short of feeding grain this winter but with a premium of £50 per tonne over feeding barley we hope this has been worthwhile.


All the finishing cattle are now back inside and being fed a finishing ration. This has allowed us to thin out the cows and calves over a larger area of grass. The deluge of rain in the past few weeks has obviously affected the feed quality of the grass and the cows are now eating the straw that we have put out for them, as well as the calves tucking into more of the creep feed.


We have recently accepted an invitation to become the arable representative for the Climate Change Focus Farm project being carried out by the Scottish Agricultural College. This project will investigate positive benefits for our business while doing our bit towards reducing greenhouse gases implicated in climate change. The launch meeting at Upper Nisbet is on 20 October.


Robert and Jac Neill  run 300 Limousin cross cows on 1,082 acres at Upper Nisbet in the Scottish Borders. They farm 600 acres of cereals and all progeny from the suckler herd are finished on home-grown fodder and sold live throughout the year to local butchers. Robert was Farmers Weekly Beef Farmer of the Year 2006.





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