FARMERS WEEKLY Farmer Focus writer Andrew Peddie is reasonably satisfied with winter barley and oilseed rape progress so far.

He has finished 50ha of winter barley and is around half way through 20ha of Winner oilseed rape on his 200ha farm near Fife.

Barley yields on the heavier land were below expectations at 7.4t/ha (3t/acre), while the lighter ground yielded slightly better at 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre).”It’s not disastrous and at least it all came in dry, below 15%”. All barley is used to feed the farm’s pig herd.

Wet weather between last autumn and this June has contributed to lower than average oilseed rape yields, Mr Peddie added. Ten hectares of Winner has averaged just over 3.1t/ha, which is around 0.5t/ha down on normal, he said.

After 5mm of rain last night (August 9), he hopes to continue with rape today.

Heavy rain during establishment this spring is also likely to impact on Optic spring barley yields, although Decanter looks to have fared slightly better, he noted.

The farm’s 70ha of Robigus and Consort winter wheat is still around three weeks away from harvest, after a difficult start to the growing season. “It didn’t go in until the end of November, but we hope to still manage average yields.”

• Crop/variety: Winter barley


• Area: N/A


• Yield: 8.6t/ha


• Quality: 15% moisture

• Winner oilseed rape


• 10ha


• 3.1t/ha


• N/A