FARMING

By Neale McQuistin

Reports from around the country suggest Scotland’s 2021 harvest has been relatively straightforward due to long spells of dry weather, and many parts are ahead of schedule and already finished with autumn planting.

While the results of the NFU Scotland annual harvest survey will be analysed over the next few days, initial figures suggest a mix in yields with winter wheat and barley largely having been of high quality, but OSR was struggling because of wet winter conditions.

Disappointingly, despite prices being generally good across the board, this has been largely offset by the huge increase in input costs from shortages of fertiliser and fuel. The current labour crisis and disruption of the supply chain has also resulted in haulage delays and seed delivery being slower than usual in some areas.

NFU Scotland’s combinable crops chair, Willie Thomson, who farms at Wheatrig near Longniddry, said: “Harvest 2021 will be remembered for being straightforward with good yields, decent prices and dry harvesting conditions – most of us would take a year like this every time.”

Market round-up

C&D Auctions sold 44 cattle at its weekly sale of primestock in Dumfries yesterday. Prime cattle met a competitive trade with Limousin x heifers selling to 270p/kg.

Beef type OTMs sold to £1,219 or 167p for Aberdeen Angus, while dairy types peaked at £987 or 139p for Friesians.

There were also 674 prime lambs that met a much sharper trade this week. Top prices were £127 for heavy Texels and 283p/kg for lightweights. There were 444 cast sheep at the sale where well fleshed ewes were in short supply and in big demand. Heavy ewes sold to £128 for Texels and Blackfaces peaked at £70.

Craig Wilson sold 934 lambs at its weekly sale of primestock at Newton Stewart where trade saw a big rise on the week to average 231p/kg or £103. Top prices were £130 for heavyweight Texels, while Beltex led per kilo for a pen that made 273p. Cast sheep were still easy to sell but quality was scarce. Top price was £115 for a Texel ram, wile ewes peaked at £110 for a Texel cross. Mules sold to £89 with Blackfaces to £65.

Caledonian Marts sold 2,353 store lambs, feeding ewes and breeding ewes at Stirling. All classes of store lambs were sharper on the week with Texel lambs averaging £88 for 632 sold (+£4 on the week). Top price was for a Texel at £122 while the overall average for the 1,847 lambs was £74 (+£4.50 on the week). Breeding ewes sold to £96 for a pen of Cheviot ewes, while feeding ewes sold to £88 for Texels.