Over the last 12 years, Dundee-based mixed farmer, Alistair Hodnett, has built a successful farm business alongside being a ‘local’ agricultural merchant, which now operates all over Scotland.
He diversified and launched Hodnett Scotland in 2011 and trades in grain, feeds, fertilisers and straw, as well as running the farm business.
A large part of Hodnett Scotland is dedicated to straw trading, and the business generally sources straw from farms across 12,000 acres stretching between Perthshire and St Cyrus. He buys it in the swath, contract bales it and stores it on his farm and in seven farm sheds in the local area.
On his own 150 ha farm, he grows winter and spring barley, winter wheat, lets land for potatoes and carrots, and runs a sheep farming enterprise of 300 sheep, which includes commercial home-bred Lleyn ewes and bought-in Texel tups.
“The cereal varieties we grow ourselves are selected carefully, because they must be suitable to fit in with the agricultural trading business and the farm. We look for tall, high-quality varieties with good standing, and while we bed down the sheep on the straw, most of it is traded, along with the grain,” he said.
His spring barley of choice is Laureate and, more recently, Evelina. “We grew Evelina last year for the first time. It yielded roughly 7.6t/ha and had a big crop of straw, yielding 4.7t/ha.
“We actively look for tall varieties with good standing and Evelina ticks all these boxes. It also has an early harvest which keeps us on the front foot,” he added.
Alistair said it had a nice bold sample of grain and was a clean variety. “We won the spring barley competition at the Angus Show with Evelina. It was judged as a standing crop against nine other entrants, which is a good indication of its quality.
“We’re impressed with the variety, so we’ve ordered more seed and will be drilling more this year from around March 20,” he said.
Alistair works closely with Douglas Gordon, at Alexander Harley Seeds, in Milnathort, north of Edinburgh, who supplied him with the seed.
“Alistair is seeing the many benefits of Evelina and increasingly, Scottish farmers are seeing it is an obvious choice because it’s a good feed barley and plenty of straw to go with it, plus excellent grain quality, minimum screenings, tall straw and an excellent agronomic package,” pointed out Douglas.
Evelina is being brought to the market by Cope Seeds and Grain and seed-supplied by Alexander Harley Seeds. "It’s becoming the go-to feed variety for Scottish farmers, proving itself over the past seven years to be reliable and consistent. It’s easy to manage, with low inputs and provides high grain and straw yields," said Douglas.
Share