Beating the weather in Angus
James Porter started combining wheat today (8 September) at West Scryne Farm, Carnoustie, Angus, in a bid to beat the wet weather.
“I’ve cut the grand total of 5ha (12 acres) of Alchemy – if we can get on tonight with two combines we should cut around 32ha (80 acres) by the end of today.”
So far the Alchemy was yielding about 9.4t/ha (3.8t/acre), but was coming off at 20% moisture.
“We can’t afford to wait any more, because I grow for seed and I’m worried about sprouting,” said Mr Porter.
“Harvest is a week behind normal – nothing has sprouted here yet, but I’ve got Scout and Beluga to cut as well, and they just keep getting rained on.
“We just don’t get two dry days together.”
Optic spring barley at his brother’s farm was disappointing, at 6.4t/ha (2.4t/acre), but Waggon at West Scryne had exceeded 7.4t/ha (3t/acre).
“We had a lot of secondary growth; the first heads were 16% moisture and ready, but the secondary tillers were never going to ripen – so that was very painful to dry.”
Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Alchemy
Area: 5ha (12 acres)
Yield: 9.4t/ha (3.8t/acre)
Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Waggon
Area: 73ha (180 acres)
Yield: >7.4t/ha (3t/acre)
Variety: Optic
Yield: 6.4t/ha (2.4t/acre)
