A week behind in Scotland
Harvest in Scotland is now a week behind normal, with continued showers delaying combining of spring barley and wheat.
“Although we had an early start to harvest, it’s been delayed so much that we’re now a week behind, and are similar to last year’s progress,” said Trevor Harriman, general manager at Scotgrain.
“The past two or three days (to 23 August) have been reasonable, but quite autumnal, so it’s still damp in the mornings.”
Spring barley harvest was less than 10% through, and nitrogen levels were good at about 1.5%, said Mr Harriman.
“It’s too early to tell how it’s yielding – and only a few bits of wheat and oats have been cut so far, too.”
Some farmers were still getting oilseed rape in, with 10-20% left to harvest.
“We had some localised heavy rain which affected rape when it was still in the swath, but generally crops haven’t come to much harm because they haven’t been fit,” he added.
“People have been very happy with rapeseed yields, and oil contents are good as well, at about 45%.”
