It’s been good to see a bit of pulling together in the industry in recent weeks – with grain growers, who are facing a pretty uncertain harvest themselves, promising to do their bit to help livestock producers struggling to find enough straw and fodder to see them through the winter.

With straw yields likely to be well down on the year, it will, of course, require quite a few growers to make that decision not to drop the chopper in order to compensate for the shortfall. While the price of straw might make the economics of baling, rather than chopping stack up this year – with the income from sales likely to more than cover the nutrient off-take and additional fertiliser requirements – it’s often timeliness that’s the key factor.

So hopes will be high for a dry spell for the main harvest which will let the balers get in pretty sharp behind the combine – and for a quick uplift of bales.

We’ve certainly found that’s where a long-standing relationship often comes in handy, with both sides being flexible and good communications ensuring that fields ear-marked for autumn sowing get priority for baling and lifting.

With NFU Scotland urging everyone to do a bit of planning ahead and to look into alternatives it could well be that, while it’s not likely to be as good for bedding as the cereal variety, there will be a fair bit of oilseed rape straw baled for bedding this year.

There was a warning issued, however, that crops which had been treated with Dow’s Astrokerb herbicide shouldn’t be used for feed, or bedding. Apparently, one of the active ingredients can be highly persistent and if treated straw was used for bedding and then spread as dung, it could knock back some sensitive crops – so that needs to be built into any plans to use rape straw in this way.

Oilseed rape growers, in general, have been encouraged to plan ahead for next year’s crop to ensure that weeds, volunteers and contaminated seed don’t push erucic acid levels above contract specs after a high rejection rate for this proved to be a bit of an issue last year.

While it’s too early to say if this year’s crop will continue that trend, reports from crushers have shown higher than expected levels of this naturally occurring fatty acid turning up in double-low OSR over the last three years.

In response, a set of industry guidelines has been drawn up to reduce these levels – which could be even more important in light of the fact that the EU could cut the maximum tolerance from 5% to 2% (a figure already specified in many food contracts) as early as this autumn.

A set of guidelines highlights the risk points and the key actions growers need to take to minimise the chances of rapeseed exceeding legal or contractual limits has been drawn up by the AHDB.

These include looking at the seed source. With the risk that farm-saved seed can become contaminated with seed from volunteers being highlighted, it’s suggested that erucic acid tests should be carried out on all seed sources before drilling.

Delaying cultivations to allow volunteers – and weeds – to germinate and be controlled might be tricky in Scottish conditions, but just as important is being able to identify fields where there is a high risk of volunteers or a big seed bank of weeds like charlock, which can push up levels and for growers to be more cautious here.

The ability to segregate crops after harvest and to understand contract requirements, plus the need to keep sealed samples are also included in the ‘must-do’ section of the guidelines.

While the majority of oilseed crops are likely to be desiccated by this time, there’s also been a glyphosate action plan launched following on from the trouble surrounding the re-licensing of this, our most widely used herbicide.

And for all crops – including OSR – the seeds or grains should all be under 30% before the crop is sprayed, in order to stop the chemical being actively absorbed by the plant. If this happens, the chemical can be transported to the seed where it can remain as a residue, to be detected and give ammunition to those seeking to have the product banned.

There’s also a big push to make sure that we all stick to the statutory harvest intervals as well – with 14 days for OSR and seven days for cereals marking the minimum, although in practice, longer is generally required for the spray to work and provide any real harvest benefit.

While it might look a bit like the dry weather has pushed many cereal crops beyond the stage at which glyphosate would actually be of much benefit, I’m pretty sure that we’ll not be alone in having fields with uneven ripening due to different soil types or areas sheltered from the worst of the ravages of the sun – and this could still see a fair bit used to even things up a bit.

The toughest call, however, might be the fact that these areas are likely to be the parts of the field which haven’t been hit so hard by the drought – and are likely to be the better yielding bits.

So, a judgement will have to be made whether to go for an earlier cut and risk reducing the yield potential of these areas a bit and the usual gamble associated with leaving the whole field until later.

With swathes of sand and gravelly soils running through our own fields where rivers have meandered in the past, I’ve often toyed with the idea of cutting parts of the field and leaving the rest. Given the twists and turns of these meanderings, though, such an approach would certainly give the poor chap on the baler a real challenge planning how he was going to handle the field – and give rise to neighbours wondering if this old chap is wandering.

Who said planning was easy?