Spring barley quality remains good in north Scotland, but rain continues to delay harvest, says Jim Whiteford at Shandwick Mains, Tain, Inverness.

“It’s very cold and autumnal – and the week ahead does not look too good.”

So far he had cut 49ha (120 acres) of Optic at 15-19% moisture, which was yielding almost 7.4t/ha (3t/acre) at 1.57% nitrogen. “It’s doing very well, and is lovely heavy barley.”

Cuillin oilseed rape was also pleasing, at over 3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre). “There have been a lot of good rape yields reported round here – hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised when it goes over the weighbridge.”

Volume winter barley came in below last year at 9.6t/ha (3.9t/acre). “It’s an incredible variety, but it doesn’t have the quality so we won’t grow it again.”

Mr Whiteford had 24ha (60 acres) of Optic left to cut, followed by 80ha (200 acres) of Waggon and 73ha (180 acres) of Viscount winter wheat.

“It is all looking very good – we just need the weather to help us. Only about 13% of the malting barley has been cut up here, and it will mostly be ripe by mid-week.”

He measured seven inches of rain in the first six months of the year, followed by the same amount in July alone.

“Despite that, the quality is still there – we were surprised. But we had very high winds at the weekend, and people lost a lot of rape.”

Crop: Spring barley
Variety: Optic
Area: 49ha (120 acres)
Yield: 7.4t/ha (3t/acre)

Crop: Oilseed rape
Variety: Cuillin
Area: 28ha (70 acres)
Yield: >3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre)

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Volume
Yield: 9.6t/ha (3.9t/acre)