Scottish farmer Sandy Alison has just got underway with his Triangle oilseed rape harvest on his farm near Edinburgh, but has had to stop due to the wet weather.

“At the moment the rain isn’t too bad, but if it goes on for another week, we’ll start to worry.”

Yields have so far been variable. In one field it varied from 2.47 – 6.18 t/ha                    (1 – 2.5 t/acre) according to the yield monitor.

“The parts of the field where we were getting 2.47 t/ha (1 t/acre) was a write off because of the dry autumn last year.”

Moisture contents started quite high at 14%, but by yesterday this dropped to 11% before the rain set in.

Mr Alison has another 100 ha (247 acres) to do before he starts harvesting his spring oilseed rape.

Because of the rain, the harvest is going to be condensed into a short period of time.

“We’re going to be very busy when the weather gets better.”

Mr Alison is very happy with his new Claas combine with a variable header.

“It‘s miles above the rest – it makes a nice job of cutting rape in a difficult year. It‘s definitely going to make a return on the investment I made in it.”