An arable year of misery and consequences

SCOTTISH farmers have had a long summer of frustration and heartache this year, as horrendous weather hindered, and often stopped, harvest.

With statistics showing this summer to be the fifth wettest since formal records began, Scotland’s farmers and contractors have faced a battle against the elements to carry out their work in 2017.

Large areas of straw are still in the field, which will have a knock-on effect on winter bedding and feed, and with cattle already being moved inside to winter housing, more bedding will be needed.

Slurry stores are already filling and fields are too wet to spread before environmental deadlines.

Farmers from across the country have shared their harvest experiences with The Scottish Farmer:

Neil Grey, an arable farmer in East Berwickshire, said it had been a long and hard, stop/start year, that has seen barley, oats, wheat and beans all difficult to get harvested.

He explained: “Straw has been very difficult to get with lots of it left lying for a long while as folks waited for drier weather, which didn’t always come,” he said.

“A lot of straw has been chopped this year, just to help clear fields for following crops.”

NFU Scotland combinable crops committee chairman, Ian Sands, who farms at Balbeggie, near Perth, said: “There is a lot of anecdotal evidence from members around the country on just how challenging a harvest this has been, with combines dodging between heavy showers of rain.

“As we now move into autumn, that means many still have a lot of crop still to cut, and those who have harvested will be facing additional drying costs.”

In the Highlands, Cameron Smith, said: “It was a problem getting straw dry enough to bale.

"For us, it has been an easy harvest, but frustrating dodging heavy rain showers.

'Straw has been very difficult to get with lots of straw left lying for a long while as folks waited for drier weather, which didn’t always come’ - Neil Grey

“But when we could get to it, it was easy to cut and low moisture. Further north, crops have been slow to ripen but good yields when they have.”

Many farmers have described some areas of their harvests this year as ‘salvage jobs’, where frustrating prolonged periods of wet weather has stopped them getting a good run at things.

One North-east farmer explained: “We had days this year where we had no option but to be at a standstill. We struggled to get spring barley in on time, ripening has been uneven and what started as an early harvest just turned into a spoiled harvest that we have struggled to get.”

AICC crop consultant with Allathan Associates, in Aberdeenshire, Bryan Chalmers, said: “On my crop management farms we still have 48% of the harvest to go. A huge amount of barley, supposedly for malting, nearly all the winter wheat, all the oats, and one grower with spring wheat.

“A failure to get winter barley straw dry enough to bale means some have dropped oilseed rape from the rotation for next year.

“Virtually all the spring barley straw combined two to three weeks ago remains sitting in the bout, hence straw prices are creeping up. There is also a perception that increased vegetable area and crops grown for digesters are going away with a lot of acres.”

Combines all over the country have had to dodge showers throughout the harvest and continual wet conditions have often delayed the cutting of already ripe crops.

'As we now move into autumn, that means many still have a lot of crop still to cut, and those who have harvested will be facing additional drying costs' Ian Sands

“In the Borders, at the start of September, around 75 to 80% of the spring barley was cut and they were well through the wheat,” said Bruce Ferguson, managing director of Aberdeen Grain.

“However, Central Scotland was slightly further behind and Aberdeenshire didn’t have much wheat cut and farmers there continued to struggle throughout the month,” he added.

“Yields across all crops were average but quality was variable, and there is some concern over brackling in Concerto spring barley. Farmers have lost a bit of yield on the floor and the concern is if we get more wind that will push the crops over further with further losses inevitable,” added Mr Ferguson.

Ringlink managing director, Graham Bruce, is realistic about the problems people have been having up and down the country: “It’s not been the best harvest season, that’s for certain. For all it was one of the earliest starts for harvest that we’ve seen in recent years, it’s going to be one of the latest finishing, and what’s gone on in between has been far from cheery. In fact, it’s been horrendous.

“There is still plenty to be done throughout Angus and up into Aberdeenshire. These areas are still facing a bit of an uphill struggle. Baling straw remains a big problem.

“A week to 10 days of better weather really would help tidy things up. It would be much needed. Some people just need one good dry day, other folk still need a good week. Those in later areas or on higher ground are the worst effected, but we just need to see how the next few weeks play out.

“It’s been a difficult harvest for the vast majority of people, unfortunately,” he said.

‘The reality is that straw is going to be expensive and scarce. I’ve seen straw at £120 a tonne and by the turn of the year it’s going to be hard to get a hold of’ Drew Watson

Drew Watson, of D Watson and Co Agri Services, based at Mouswald, near Dumfries, spoke of ongoing issues: “Everyone has struggled in a variety of ways this season. Ground conditions have been terrible across the board and that just makes every job 10 times more difficult.

“We’ve still a few barley cutting jobs to do, but we also know places in the Canonbie and Gretna area that are struggling even to get their grass cut for silage.

“People are already bring cattle in to get them off wet fields, which raises the issue of straw. The reality is that straw is going to be expensive and scarce. I’ve seen straw at £120 a tonne and by the turn of the year it’s going to be hard to get a hold of.

“In the last month what we’ve baled was poor quality and in a few places it’s still lying. The weather has really just ruined the job. We’re struggling to get winter barley in and really if it’s not in in the next week, then it’s too late.

“When it comes to the maize harvest, we don’t know yet what the ground conditions will be like. It’s not good. People are working hard but they’re facing challenges at every given opportunity and there’s only so much that is humanly possible.”

Speaking from Dumfries and Galloway, Ben McClymont (21), who works locally doing contracting work, said: “I’m currently studying agriculture at SRUC Edinburgh, and usually once I go back after the summer holidays, I’m not needed as much at home and the rest of the summer work can be done by one man. But this year, there’s still so much to be done.

“I’m having to dot between college and work all the time at the moment, just so we can try and get caught up as much as possible, and that’s something I’ve never had to do before, so the weather has definitely made quite an impact this year. It’s making a lot of people miserable!”

‘It was a problem getting straw dry enough to bale. For us, it has been an easy harvest, but frustrating dodging heavy rain showers’ Cameron Smith

“We were quite lucky as we had all of our silage chopped before the Highland Show this year,” explained 20-yearold Jack Kerr, who works at a dairy farm in Stewarton, Ayrshire.

“The weather had been quite unpredictable, so we decided to chance it with our barley as well and managed to get the straw fairly good, but I would say that the way it’s going is that we are definitely going to be short of straw this year, which means it’s going to be far more expensive than usual.

“Some people are still waiting to get their third cut of silage done and I think we are all starting to wonder if they will ever manage to do so,” he explained.

Another factor to consider, is the fact that dairy cattle has had to be brought indoors much earlier, which means a reduced silage crop will be relied upon for a longer than usual housing period. That is the case for Aleck Nairn (38), of Kerrycroy, on the Isle of Bute, whose dairy herd has been indoors full-time for three weeks.

He explained: “We managed to get all of our silage cut this year and the stuff we have isn’t bad but it is pretty wet. Hopefully, we will have enough to see us through to the spring, but due to the cows being indoors so early on in the year, we may see a shortage meaning we will have to be selective about which cows we take through the winter.”

Having seen a difficult situation on Bute for the past few years already, Mr Nairn, who is the NFU Scotland milk committee representative for Argyll and Bute, added that the weather will do the island, as a whole, no favours.

“Reduced silage stocks, coupled with the bad weather, will have a negative effect on milk production here, where we had hoped to increase output,” he said.

‘There is still plenty to be done throughout Angus and up into Aberdeenshire. These areas are still facing a bit of an uphill struggle. Baling straw remains a big problem’ - Graham Bruce

A further issue for many of Scotland’s farmers, he continued, will also be the lack of straw in the country, and the resulting higher cost of it, due to its low volume.

He said: “The trouble is, there’s a lot of straw still to be cut, and some straw has just been chopped and spread back onto the land and ploughed in, so that’s a large reason for the shortage.”

He continued: “I’m already paying the spring price for straw at the moment, which is obviously not ideal. “After the last two difficult years, we had really hoped to have a good summer so that we could start rebuilding and repairing our businesses, but I had hoped for that last year too,” he admitted.

Ross Montgomerie (19), of Assloss, Kilmarnock, a beef and sheep farmer, claimed that it’s the cost of keeping livestock indoors over a longer period of time, that is his biggest issue.

He commented: “We are going to need a lot more straw for bedding this year due to the longer period of time that the cattle is going to be indoors, and, due to there being a quite a lack of it, I’m paying a lot more for it this year than I usually do.

“My suckled calves have been indoors for some weeks now and it’s a long time between then and the sales in the winter, so I’m just hoping we get a good price at that point, otherwise we will be working at quite a loss.

“Overall, beef suckler cows only being at grass for three months of the year is totally unsustainable.”

‘After the last two difficult years, we had really hoped to have a good summer' - Aleck Nairn

Murray Stephen (25), of Netherthird, Rothienorman, in Aberdeenshire, has also been affected by the poor weather and he is surprised by how late in the year he’s still doing harvest work.

“I was on holiday in the summer, and returned home at the end of August, expecting that most of the harvest would be complete, but that wasn’t the case at all.

“The harvest got off to a good, promising, start, however, with the intermittent showers, it became increasingly challenging. This is, by far, the wettest year I’ve ever experienced, and I think everyone will agree when I say we are all pretty fed up.”