James Grant-Suttie has made a start on winter wheat at Balgone Farms, North Berwick, Scotland, and is pleased with yields so far.

A good week last week meant he finished off the spring barley and got into both second and first wheats, before being rained off again on Sunday (31 August).

Riband, as a second wheat, averaged over 10t/ha (4t/acre), and Alchemy as a first wheat had so far yielded 11-11.5t/ha (4.5-4.7t/acre).

Jockey-treated seed in the second wheat had made a big difference to take-all levels, said Mr Grant-Suttie, producing a 1.2t/ha (0.5t/acre) yield improvement.

Oxbridge spring barley had sprouted in the head, and germination was as low as 96% in some samples. “But it all scraped in for malting.”

Yields averaged 6.7t/ha (2.7t/acre) where grown for malting, and over 7.4t/ha (3t/acre) where grown for seed, he said.

Pearl winter barley did very well, averaging almost 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre).  Excalibur oilseed rape was also above average at 4.4t/ha (1.8t/acre).

Mr Grant-Suttie now had 200ha (500 acres) of Riband, Robigus and Alchemy wheat to combine – and some of the Alchemy was showing signs of sprouting.

“We could really do with three or four good days.” Meanwhile, he was busy drilling rape as last week’s good weather had dried out the ground.

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Riband
Yield: >10t/ha (4t/acre)

Variety: Alchemy
Area: 20ha (50 acres)
Yield: 11-11.5t/ha (4.5-4.7t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Oxbridge
Area: 130ha (320 acres)
Yield: 6.9t/ha (2.8t/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Excalibur
Area: 40ha (100 acres)
Yield: 4.4t/ha (1.8t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Pearl
Area: 44ha (108 acres)
Yield: 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre)