Nick Davidson expected to make a start on cutting winter wheat at Milton of Clola, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, today (9 September).

“There is a lot of wheat and spring barley to cut around here, and we had flood water as high as I’ve ever seen at this time of year last week.

“It was running through our wheat, and looked disastrous, but it dried out very quickly. I think it will be well under 20% later today, and the forecast looks good.”

The 16ha (40 acres) of Riband had stood up well to the weather, and still looked good.

Unfortunately, the spring barley had brackled badly, and lost a lot of heads during combining, said Mr Davidson.

However, the Oxbridge still averaged a pleasing 6.4-6.7t/ha (2.6-2.7t/acre) at 1.4% nitrogen. “It was the best quality malting barley we have ever had, but the merchants were offering £78/t for it, so I refused to let them have it.

“We shall wait for intervention to open, at a price that equates to £88/t for feed barley.”

Mr Davidson had managed to drill his oilseed rape for next year, but it was suffering very badly with slug damage, he added.

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Oxbridge
Yield: 6.4-6.7t/ha (2.6-2.7t/acre)