Harvest may not be late at Sweethope, Kelso, in the Scottish borders, but it is back-to-front, says Stuart Fuller-Shapcott.

“We’ve cut all the wheat, but we’re only nibbling at the spring barley because it’s barely ready – the straw is still quite green in places.

“The weather is not helping – we’ve got really unpleasant North-West showers today (14 September), so it’s pretty frustrating.”

Yields had been average, with wheat on very heavy land suffering from slug damage.

Scout, as a first wheat, yielded 9.5-10.5t/ha (3.8-4.25t/acre), with Solstice as a second wheat averaging 8.5t/ha (3.4t/acre), and suffering from low protein content.

“We stormed through the wheat at below 16% moisture,” said Mr Fuller-Shapcott. Barrie spring wheat also came off easily, at around 3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre).

The 40ha (100 acres) of Publican and Optic spring barley cut so far was a bit disappointing, at 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre), but was mostly making the malting specification.

“Bushelweights are very variable.” Winter barley all made malting, and yielded about average, as did peas and oilseed rape.

Mr Fuller-Shapcott had about 20% of his crops left to harvest. “We’re not late, it just feels strange because we’ve cut the wheat first.

“Quite a lot of people have finished around here on the lighter land, but there’s a fair bit left on heavier ground, where it was late drilled in the spring.

“There are a lot of beans left, and they’re some way off yet. But another week of decent weather here and we’d be finished.”

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Solstice
Yield: 8.5t/ha (3.4t/acre)

Variety: Scout
Yield: 9.5-10.5t/ha (3.8-4.25t/acre)

Crop: Spring barley
Varieties: Publican and Optic
Area: 40ha (100 acres)
Yield: 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre)