FINAL estimates of this year's Scottish cereal and oilseed rape harvest confirm the general messages in the provisional results published in August.
The figures show that this year's harvest shrank by 11 per cent to 2.8 million tonnes (mt) of cereals, including 1.6mt of barley and 900,000 tonnes of wheat. The total is five per cent lower than the ten-year average.
This year's fall in production is due to an eight per cent fall in overall cereal yields. The total area of land sown has also decreased by three per cent.
There had been no catastrophic weather conditions responsible for the poor yields, just a series of less than ideal factors affecting the seed bed, growing conditions and the final harvest.
Market round-up
Messrs Craig Wilson Ltd held their Christmas show and sale of prime lambs in Newton Stewart on Wednesday when the championship was awarded to G Milroy, Mains of Machemore for Beltex that weighed 45kg and sold for £120 per head or 266.7p per kg. The reserve ticket went to A Wright, Pinmore Mains, also for Beltex, that scaled 50kg and went on to fetch £116 or 232p. Winning the Blackface section was M/s A&F Baillie, Low Glasnick, Kirkcowan with a pen that sold for £100 each.
The 1,392 lambs not presented for judging averaged 159.2p (-3.6p on the week).
The firm also had 319 cast sheep forward when all classes were dearer on the week with ewes selling to £130 for Texels.
United Auctions sold 231 store heifers at Stirling on Wednesday to a top of 250p per kg and an average of 200.7p (-6.2p), while 212 store, beef-bred bullocks peaked at 263.2p and levelled at 212.8p (+2.1p). Thirty-eight store, B&W bullocks sold to 137.7p and averaged 129p (-13p), while 24 store bulls peaked at 218.3p and levelled at 203.6p (+40.2p).
In the rough ring 185 beef cows sold to £1650 per head and 155.6p per kg to average 112.4p (+7.7p), while 20 dairy cows peaked at £765 and 102.5p to level at 89.9p (-4p).
C&D Auction Marts Ltd sold 7 prime heifers in Dumfries on Wednesday to a top of 208p and an average of 200.1p.
There were 66 OTM cattle presented in the rough ring when beef cows sold to £971.70 and 124p to average 103.1p, while dairy cows peaked at £923.40 and 125p to level at 89.4p.
The firm also sold 1001 prime lambs to a top of £85 and 205p to average 163.9p (-1.6p).
A nice show of 332 cast sheep saw heavy ewes sell to £101.50 for Suffolks and average £69.37 (-30p), while light ewes peaked at £61.50 for Cheviots and levelled at £41.85 (+£2.82).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here