The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Farmers getting started on spring sowing at last
Long, wet winter over – and ‘conditions are really good’ for industry
Farmers across Scotland are making a start to spring sowing after a long and wet winter for many.
In the Highlands, Donald Ross from Rhynie Farm in Easter Ross started sowing spring barley yesterday.
“I’m very fortunate to have the whole family home,” said Mr Ross, who won the AgriScot Scottish Arable Farm of the Year award in 2018.
“My son has singlehandedly ploughed 200 acres at the age of 16.”
He said 40 acres of spring oats were already in the ground, and work was now beginning on sowing 150 acres of spring barley.
“There’s still the odd wet hole here and there, but the conditions are really good,” added Mr Ross.
“The winter crops have come through the winter well and I’m very happy with my cereals at the moment. Oilseed rape is a bit slow, and we need a bit of warmth now to get everything going.”
Scott Campbell, who farms at Kirkton of Kinellar near Inverurie, reported good progress on spring sowing.
He said: “We are well on for this time of year. We started sowing malting barley on March 20, and our average start date is March 23-25.”
He said winter crops, which were sown by September 23 last year, were looking well but in need of some warmth.
Mr Campbell added: “They have come through the winter well. We have been quite dry but we have added in a few more drains and did some ditching work over the winter. I would like to see a bit more heat now.”
Further south in Angus, Graham Mackie from the Laws, near Dundee, said: “We started sowing spring barley around nine days ago, which is a couple of days later than last year.
“Conditions were better than I was expecting with the odd patch still needing to dry out.
“We got the last of our winter wheat sown in January and it’s looking well. The oilseed rape has responded to the sunshine in the past week and it’s starting to grow nicely.”
NFU Scotland’s combinable crops chairman Willie Thomson said the ability to start getting spring crops in the ground would come as a huge relief to growers.
“Following an extremely difficult start of the year for arable farmers across the country, many regions are now beginning to see some improvements and are able to start spring
sowing,” continued Mr Thomson.
“For us, in Lothian, the better weather has meant that we have been able to start sowing oats over the week and have managed to start sowing spring barley. We are, of course, having to choose where we sow carefully as there are still fields and pockets in certain fields which are too wet.”