On paper our weather has improved, with fewer downpours and high pressure over the country for the past few weeks.

This has, however, brought large amounts of cloud and no wind, with many damp, still days meaning that combining has been progressing, but at what seems like two-thirds speed.

Given the conditions, we have progressed well, with just over 1,212ha now cut and, hopefully, the last of the barley harvested this week.

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About the author

Robert Drysdale

Arable Farmer Focus writer

Robert Drysdale is farm manager at Monymusk Estate, growing winter and spring barley, wheat and oilseed rape across 1600ha on 4 contract farming agreements to the south of Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. The farm also has 130 beef cows running on land that is less suitable for crop production with the majority of calves being finished on the farm.

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OSR proved to be disappointing, which seems to be common in the area, with our average down by nearly 1t/ha from last year.

Damage from flea beetle larvae in the spring take much of the blame, but I think the arctic blast that we had in April just as the crop was coming into flower did more damage than I had thought.

Spring barley has been more pleasing, with yields around 6.5t/ha and good malting quality, low in nitrogen, skinning and screenings.

We have just managed to get enough loads away every day to allow the harvest to continue, but had the weather allowed progress at normal output, we would have been tight for space. 

Additional grain storage space needs to be pushed high up the agenda for future investment. We need to get most of the malting barley out to allow the wheat into store at the end of harvest.

We did cut 61ha of very ripe wheat last week, which has given an indication of reasonable yields to come from the remainder. 

I don’t post much on social media, just generally scrolling through Twitter to see what is happening, but have tried to avoid it for the past few weeks as the number of people posting “harvest finished” messages was somewhat depressing!

Supply chain issues seem to be becoming the norm, with a loader expected in June still not here.

The manufacturer has been unable to communicate what the cause of the delay is, or how long it might be.

Fortunately, we have been well supported by the dealer who has provided us with an alternative machine.

It is becoming normal now to ask not just the price when ordering parts, but also can you supply.