Half of Scottish growers have yet to finish drilling cereals this autumn following weeks of “relentless” wet weather, a survey from NFU Scotland shows.

One in five growers still have more than 10% of their cereals, maize or potatoes to harvest.

And a staggering one in 10 arable respondents still had 50% or more of their cereals and maize in the field.

As a result of this year’s record rainfall and disastrous harvest, half of farmers in Scotland have already sought financial help to stay in business, according to responses to the NFU Scotland’s wet weather survey.

“What the survey has also done is clarify just how difficult 2012 has been,” said NFUS president Nigel Miller, speaking at AgriScot on Wednesday (21 November).

“For those with crops, the relentless rain endured over many months have hammered crop yields and quality, driven significant costs into harvesting, left many crops still standing in the fields and winter seed in the shed unsown.”

On livestock units, the survey showed the issues have been early housing of stock, variable forage quality, higher feed costs and being forced to sell animals earlier than intended due to lack of feed.

Two-thirds of livestock farmers have had to buy more bedding and fodder than they had budgeted for and 75% of livestock keepers housed their stock earlier than normal due to the wet weather.

With cashflow being highlighted as a concern for many businesses, Mr Miller said farmers would be seeking reassurances from the Scottish government of prompt payments for single farm payments in December and less favoured areas support in March.

In an unprecedented level of response, more than 450 Scottish farmers completed the union’s survey in less than 10 days.

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