Farmer Focus: Fuel price fall welcomed as harvest approaches

With winter barley about to receive its pre-harvest glyphosate, thoughts once again turn to how valuable this product is in terms of making crops harvest ready for ease of combining, reducing drying and improving long-term storage prospects.

In addition to its harvest benefits for Northern growers, glyphosate is used UK-wide for those of us implementing non-inversion tillage, so let’s hope that the upcoming relicensing is supported by the Health and Safety Executive and the UK government, and our industry’s safe use of this essential arable tool continues unchallenged.

See also: Project aims to unlock nitrogen savings through soil biology

About the author

Neil MacLeod

Neil MacLeod manages 1,600ha of mixed soils on the east coast of Angus, Scotland. The majority of the land is in arable production with diversified enterprises consisting of soft fruit, sitka spruce, environmental stewardship, and renewable energy.

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With harvest only a couple of weeks away, it has been very welcome to see a significant reduction in the price of fuel, although tensions remain in the Middle East.

Let’s hope the upcoming three-month period, in which we require 80% of our annual fuel, passes without further conflict, and we can start to see a reduction in fertiliser prices also. 

Unfortunately, the same rays of hope cannot be mirrored by the UK grain markets, which once again are on the slide due to favourable harvest conditions, robust yields and positive yield estimates being reported across the northern hemisphere.

With all of these factors weighing heavy on plentiful global stocks we have raised our current crop sales from 80 to 100%, with 2027 harvest sales also increased to 60% and 2028 harvest sales kicking off with 40% forward sold. 

Final preparations are now under way as our own harvest looms.

We have converted an old bothy on the farm into very smart harvest accommodation and look forward to welcoming our seasonal help be it our agricultural students or long-standing and very loyal local support.

Our new grain store built last year has had to be partially dismantled due to cracking in the concrete panels.

Although it sounds like a significant undertaking, it’s amazing what two men with the correct equipment can achieve, and we are pleased with the prompt response by the contractor in rectifying the issue.

With most of our crops looking promising, I am looking forward to harvest and wish everyone luck with their own.