No spring barley movement

6 September 2001



No spring barley movement

YIELD and quality have been reasonable for Eric Haggart, who farms at Auchterarder in Perthshire. "The main problem has been merchants not quoting prices. Farmers are unwilling to move spring barley off the farm without a price."

This year he is only growing spring barley. He is in the situation where the barn is cramped of room. He has stopped combining with under 15ha (38 acres) to combine.

Yields have been up to average for the farm. Prestige and Prisma are yielding an estimated 5.7t/ha (2.3t/acre).

Quality of earlier crops is good. March drilled crop averages 1.45% nitrogen, but the later crops are higher up to 1.81, which may result in some lost premium. "Prisma has been a good crop and has stood up to the weather better than most in Scotland."

Combining conditions in the last two weeks have been very good, but the moisture has still been quite high, as there are a lot of green grains. "There was a lot of late tilling, with tramlines and other patches remaining green for a long while.

"One neighbour told me that he was combining one field at 23% in some patches and 11% in others, and that if someone had told him that they wouldn’t have believed them."

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