The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Harvest was a good one
The 2014 harvest in Scotland will be remembered by many growers as one of the earliest and easiest in recent times. David Andrews investigates.
ALTHOUGH THE first half of this month was marked with showery weather, combining progressed to the point where an estimated 85% of the Scottish spring barley and a fair percentage of the wheat has been cut in August.
In addition to the earliness and ease of harvest, grain quality has been good with low or very low nitrogen levels, virtually no screenings and no evidence of skinning.
Yields have also exceeded many expectations with three-tonne-per-acre crops being seen quite regularly and as an added bonus costly drying charges have largely been avoided.
All in all, very positive until the price offered for the grain comes into the equation with wheat now trading at a fouryear low of around £120 per tonne and non contracted malting barley around the same level while feed barley is down at around £90 per tonne.
Giving his view of the harvest so far, Andrew Stephen, managing director of grain merchants WN Lindsay, with depots in Strathcathro, Keith and Gladsmuir, said farmers from Angus right down to the Scottish Borders had had a “great go”.
In that area, the barley crop had now almost been completely harvested and samples had shown excellent quality with low screenings and very low levels of nitrogen.
In an example of the early season, he confirmed that Strathcathro had already taken in 25% of its capacity compared with a zero figure last year.
However further north Morayshire and Easter Ross, traditionally good malting barley areas, had been hit by the tail end of Typhoon Bertha in the first half of August and crops had taken a hammering.
The convener of NFU Scotland’s combinable crops committee, Andrew Moir, Thornton Mains, Laurencekirk, confirmed there had been a split in the fortunes of Scottish cereal growers with those in the north east facing the frustration of seeing farmers in the south getting on.
“Some of the north east received 220ml of rain between January and July and then received more than 200ml in the first few weeks of August,” he said.
“As a result there have been reports of combines getting stuck.”
Despite the weather in the north east delaying harvesting, Stephen said samples now coming off combines from that area were still very good although looking a little “washed out.”
Bruce Ferguson, Scottish manager for Frontier which handles almost one quarter of the UK cereal crop, echoed Stephen’s analysis of the harvest.
He added that yields have been uniformly above average.
He reckoned they could easily average one quarter of a tonne per acre above the norm and that over the 700,000 acres of barley grown in Scotland came to quite a tonnage.
While maltsters were taking in big tonnages, he feared there could be “a significant surplus (of malting barley) that
“I have never cut wheat at 15% (moisture) before.”
Ian Sands
will not find a home until the market settles down.”
He added the malting barley supply situation would not be helped with English growers who have completed their harvest producing a big surplus of grain with very low nitrogen levels.
Rab Chrisp, Glenrothes, who has had almost 50 years in the grain trade said he had never seen so low nitrogen levels as were turning up this year.
One of his growers had produced a sample with an N level of only 1.15%.
This low level of nitrogen in the grain was causing problems for some producers, according to Chrisp.
They had contracted to supply high nitrogen grain and were now struggling to meet the contract specifications.
Another angle, he pointed out, on the low nitrogen levels was that feed barley would have lower-than-normal protein levels because of it and livestock producers would have to be aware of that.
On values, he put feed barley at about £95 per tonne then added “If you can get an order.”
Malting barley not on contract was around £125 per tonne which was about £25 per tonne lower than last year.
Fife cereal producer Ian Whiteford, Hilltarvit, Cupar, who reckoned he was about two thirds through his harvest said that increases in yields might “just” cover the drop in price.
“Those that control us have managed to get the price down relative to the yield increase,” he said.
The harvest at Hilltarvit has been much easier to take this year with low drying costs.
One of his contracts was for high nitrogen barley and he was confident he would make the grade thanks to several fields being grown on land that had either come out of grass or had received a good application of dung.
On his Laurencekirk farm, Andrew Moir, Thornton Mains, said he had completed his wheat crop and that the 2015 crop of oilseed rape was in the ground in good condition.
However, he was still concerned that all important conditions surrounding the ‘greening’ of the next Common Agricultural Policy which will come into operation in January were still not fully to hand.
In the East Neuk of Fife, Frank Roger, Rumgally, has completed his spring barley harvest.
Normally he would have hoped to get most of it away as the farm is quite early but the rainy weather in early August had prevented that and he had a lot of grain still in his sheds.
However, he was happy that moisture levels were very low and even after rain the grain was coming off at under 15%.
In Perthshire, Ian Sands, Townhead, Balbeggie, said he was two thirds through his spring barley and had made an early start to his wheat, taking a field of Istabraq at 15% moisture.
“I have never cut wheat at 15% before,” he said.
He thought the non contract price for malting barley was “disgraceful” and pointed out that 19 years ago when diesel was 10 pence per litre and nitrogenous ertiliser was £100 per tonne he had been selling grain at £90 per tonne.
“Now barley is at £120 but diesel is around 60 pence per litre and fertiliser is around the £300 per tonne mark.”
He was also annoyed the cost of barley and wheat seed seemed to have spiralled away from being twice the price of the commercial crop to a point where it now costs three times as much.
In East Lothian, Willie Thomson, Wheatrig, Longniddry, confirmed the non contract price for malting barley was a major downside to this year’s harvest.
Wheat values at a four-year low were also disappointing from his perspective although yields of both crops had been good.
With thoughts already turning towards sowing for next year’s crop, he was, like Andrew Moir, particularly exercised over the lack of clarity from the Scottish Government about the conditions on greening.
“This is a disgrace as our counterparts in England and Wales have had comprehensive guidelines for some time now,” he said.