Charlie Stewart is half-way through the spring oats at Merton Estates, St Boswells, Kelso, but is finding it to be a slow year.

“We’re moving from one crop to another and it’s a bit all over the place,” he said. 

“The oilseed rape is ready in some places, but not others, so we still waiting to make a start there.”

The 160ha of Firth spring oats cut so far yielded an average of 5.2t/ha. “We would usually hope for more, so the yield has been quite disappointing,” said Mr Stewart.

“On the other hand, the quality’s good and there’s another 160ha of oats to go.”

Sequel, Volume and Element winter barley was all cut and yielded a very disappointing average of 4.9t/ha.

“Some fields have coped alright, but some haven’t, and it’s been a poor performance all round,” said Mr Stewart. “We’ll be sticking only with the hybrid varieties next year as they seems best suited to the area.”

Beluga and Horatio winter wheat didn’t give any further encouragement, yielding just under 7.4t/ha.

“We had a bad autumn to establish the crops, and then the spring topped it off with the cold weather.

“On the brighter side, the potatoes are looking reasonable and we plan to start harvesting them next week.”

Looking ahead to 2014, seedbed preparation and drilling was well underway.

“The oilseed rape is already in the ground and we’re sub-soiling the whole farm,” said Mr Stewart.

“This year is one of those years we just want to put behind us. We’re aiming for quality establishment for next year’s crop and it’s so far so good.”

Crop: Spring oats
Variety: Firth
Area: 160ha
Yield: 5.2t/ha

Crop: Winter wheat
Variety: Beluga and Horatio
Yield: 7.4t/ha

Crop: Winter barley
Variety: Sequel, Volume and Element
Yield: 4.9t/ha