Teamwork eases pressure on Scottish Barometer Farm
The land that Sentry’s Mike Eagers manages for three clients on Hopetoun Estate, Linlithgow near Edinburgh produces good crop yields. But the sowing slot to achieve them is tight and the soils hard to handle.
“We get about 34in of rain a year, but the pattern’s definitely changing. So we have very narrow windows of opportunity.”
Mr Eagers grows cereals, with oilseed rape and spring bean breaks, on 1000ha (2500 acres), and works half as much again collaborating with contractor Robert Fleming based at nearby Ratho.
The main business constraint this arrangement overcomes is capital expenditure, he explains. “We have to minimise it. All the SFP goes to the landlord.”
Most of the land was mined for oil shale in the 1800s, and despite steep drainage bills, wet holes often appear unexpectedly.
“It’s undulating, and gets heavier the further south we go. But the real problem is variability within fields which makes uniform seed-beds challenging.
“We need to hit hard and quickly to get everything done in time. We aim to start sowing rape on 15 August and like to have all our wheat in by the end of September.”
In the collaboration, based on non-inversion tillage, Mr Eagers provides two of his four full-time staff, two John Deere tractors (an 8520 & a 7830), a Simba Flatliner subsoiler, a 6m Vaderstad Carrier cultivator with Variocast box and a 12m set of rolls.
Mr Fleming’s contribution is one man, a Challenger 765 tractor, an 8m Horsch Terrano cultivator and a 6m Horsch CO drill.
The system, successful for two seasons, was extended last harvest with a new Lexion 600 30ft cut tracked combine replacing the units’ two smaller machines.
Mr Eagers admits that the extra 200ha (500 acres) taken on this season may stretch it.
“It’s another challenge I have to address. The plan is to pull a Sentry combine up from down south.”
The problem should be partly eased by 120ha (300 acres) of spring rape grown for a premium in return for accepting Scottish Water sewage sludge.
“This is our second year in the sludge contract. We grew wheat on it last year for a £10/t premium over feed.”
Limited storage, requiring all the barley and rape to be sold forward for harvest delivery, is the other big challenge.
“I also have to sell about half our wheat at harvest,” he says. On the plus side all his outlets are nearby.
Most of the wheat, this season mainly Alchemy and Robigus, goes for distilling.
Pearl winter barley, re-introduced on the back of better malting prices, and spring-sown Optic and Oxbridge will go to local maltsters.
A two-year-old 26t/hr Alvan Blanch drier has eased previous bottlenecks. “But for now we can store only 2000t of wheat.”
So he hopes proposals for an extra 3000t of storage will be accepted in time for harvest.
As on all Sentry-run units – in total 20,600ha (51,000 acres) – inputs are sourced centrally, Agrovista’s Jonathan Cahalin offering agronomy advice.
Meadowgrass being the main weed, BASIS-qualified Mr Eagers is becoming concerned. “When IPU goes we’ll have to rely of pre-ems which will make the autumn workload even heavier.”
All spraying on the farm, about six miles from end to end, is done by farm foreman David Miller using a 3000-litre 24m trailed Hardi machine.
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