The Scottish summer has returned so we’re dressing some wheat seed ready for early autumn sowing. We’ve a small dresser which utilises the pit and elevators in the grain drying shed, the seed is fed in, riddled to remove chaff, small grains and detritus and bagged.

The earliest we’ll sow winter wheat is 2/3rd wk in Sept, this helps avoid some significant pests and diseases whilst catching good weather and an earlier harvest the following yr. Home saved seed is tested for % germination, disease, and thousand grain weight

A sowing rate in kg/ha is calculated using the test results and adjusted up or down by field depending on soil type, previous crop, date of sowing, weather, crop pests etc. We buy in new seed to grow on for home saving the following yr, and similarly work out a sowing rate

Weather depending we should be combining the bulk of this years wheat within 2/3 wks at it. Last yr we started cutting wheat on 26th Aug and finished 14th Sept, 2018 we were done by 1st Sept! 2015 we didn’t start wheat until 11 Sept and ended 28th! Every yr is different

Winter wheat is our main crop, we’ll dry it to 13% mc and get the grain temperature down below 12°C asap depending on ambient temps so it’ll store without spoiling through pests or disease. It’s sold typically for distilling, bread wheat is tricky to grow in Scotland

This is a temporary harvest store showing the perforated cooling stacks in use, the grain is tipped and pushed in around the stacks and a large fan placed on top to draw cool air through the crop and moist warm air out They’ll be in all winter in the stored wheat, until sold.