Farmers in north Scotland are finally benefiting from a break in the weather, but they still have thousands of acres of crops to harvest, and quality is suffering.

Bruce Ferguson, manager at Aberdeen Grain, said Friday’s (29 September) wind and rain caused significant damage to spring barley crops.

Farmers in the area still had about 15% of spring barley and 40-50% of their wheat left to cut, but prospects for this week looked brighter.

In Morayshire, Martin Bridges was finishing harvest today (4 October) at Moray Estates, Elgin.

“It’s been purgatory, but we’re better off than most. All in all it’s been a below average year – the only highlight is that we’ve finally finished.”

Nick Davidson was also relieved to have finished harvest at Clola Farms, Milton of Clola, Peterhead, and even hoped to finish drilling this evening.

“But what a struggle it has been. There’s still an awful lot left to cut, and a lot of the land won’t be drilled now, because it’s so wet.”

Across the UK, wheat production remained stable this year, despite lower yields, according to the NFU’s annual harvest survey.

It put UK wheat production at 14.8m – only slightly below the five-year average of 14.9m tonnes, with an increase in planted area offsetting a 3% reduction in yields.