Scottish harvest stalls as haulage firms struggle to keep up

It has been a perfect example of a stop-start harvest but spring barley yields have mostly been well above average and stores have filled quickly.

This is a perennial issue but it has been made worse this year by higher than usual rejection rates and a shortage of suitable bulk transport.

NFU Scotland has written to key organisations in the supply chain to seek answers to the problem.

Combinable crops chairman Ian Sands said: “As a result of the weather, growers are experiencing rejections for grain grown for quality markets because of issues such as sprouting and germination. The knock on from that is a surplus of feed grain on farm, with limited storage and limited demand.

Uncertainty

“For feed grain, Brexit uncertainty is a factor in halting a lot of merchant purchases. This is grain that would have been expected to find a ready demand for export but the threat of a no-deal Brexit; and the potential for tariffs of over £80 per tonne on exports to the EU and zero per cent tariffs on imports are significantly undermining market prospects.

“It remains to be seen whether ongoing political wrangling and the possibility of a ‘no deal’ being take off the table provide a floor to the export market in the short-term.”

On haulage he said there had been a long-standing reduction in hauliers and vehicles suitable to haul grain. Rejections at intake and grain being returned to farm was exacerbating the pressure on hauliers.