Good progress at Muirden Farm
Harvest is making surprisingly good progress at Muirden Farm, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, where manager Sandy Norrie was combining until 5.45 this morning.
“I know it’s been dreadful for some people, but it’s not too bad for us – I’m not panicking yet,” he said.
“We sow some early wheat and were harvesting four weeks ago as we were running out of food for the laying hens. Bizarrely, that was the driest wheat we’ve cut, at 17-22% moisture.”
Last night (22 September), the wheat came off at 18-23% moisture, and despite a shower this morning, Mr Norrie expected to be back on this afternoon and into tomorrow.
“We’ve had 12ha (30 acres) of Beluga that was sprouting, but other than the wheat hasn’t been ripe, and looks very good.
“There’s just 40ha (100 acres), which I hope to cut this afternoon, that I would be worried about if we were to get gales.”
Of the total 2226ha (5500 acres), Mr Norrie had cut 1862ha (4600 acres) of cereals, leaving 242ha (600 acres) of winter wheat and some organic spring wheat to cut.
So far, the 120ha (300 acres) of wheat had averaged over 10t/ha (4t/acre).
Spring barley averaged 7t/ha (2.86t/acre), with Waggon doing over 7.4t/ha (3t/acre) and Catriona making the grade for high nitrogen malting.
Oilseed rape also did well, averaging 4.6t/ha (1.88t/acre), and topping at 5.6t/ha (2.25t/acre) for a 38ha (95 acre) block of Sesame.
“That was a big surprise – I was very chuffed with that.”
Winter barley averaged 9.3t/ha (3.78t/acre), with Volume yielding better than Element.
“We drill straight behind the plough, so have got 445ha (1100 acres) of winter barley, 400ha (1000 acres) of oilseed rape and 200ha (500 acres) of winter wheat sown,” said Mr Norrie.
“We cut 120ha (300 acres) yesterday with three combines, so if we had decent weather for four or five full days we could get it wrapped up.”
Crop: Winter wheat
Varieties: Robigus, Viscount and Beluga
Area: 120ha (300 acres)
Yield: >10t/ha (4t/acre)
Crop: Spring barley
Varieties: Waggon and Catriona
Yield: 7t/ha (2.86t/acre)
Crop: Winter barley
Varieties: Sequel and Actrice blend, Volume, Element and Retriever
Area: 850ha (2100 acres)
Yield: 9.3t/ha (3.78t/acre)
Crop: Oilseed rape
Area: 400ha (1000 acres)
Yield: 4.6t/ha (1.88t/acre)
