Inverness farmer takes winning Harvest Photo Comp shot

Farmer Duncan Scott from Fearn near Inverness is the winner of this year’s Farmers Weekly Harvest Photography Competition.

Duncan captured the beautiful image above of the spring barley harvest, which takes pride of place on this Friday’s Farmers Weekly magazine front cover.

Contractor Stuart Wilson, a former winner of the Farmers Weekly Contractor of the Year Award, was in the combine and Duncan was grain-carting when he took the picture on one of the steepest fields on the farm, close to the coast. 

See also: Harvest 2022 photo competition: Some of the best entries

“It’s been an amazing harvest,” said Duncan. “We started cutting on August 9 and also finished in August – which is pretty unheard of in this part of the world.”

Yields have been high, with spring barley averaging about 8.6t/ha.

“It’s been a very dry and dusty harvest – and it’s been a real novelty to have been able to start combining at 9am or 10am some mornings,” he said.

“I love taking pictures and that’s the beauty of mobile phones these days – it’s easy to take lots and to improve through trial and error.”