No Record For Scottish Harvest

Despite a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting a record 2015 harvest for Scottish farmers the official Government statistics show otherwise.

The decline in area, predominately from barley, led to reduced overall production.  Crop Diversification rules under Greening are likely to have played a major role in the reduction in barley area.  Yields for all cereals are lower that the first estimates produced in October, with overall cereal yields down 4.6% on the expected yield.  As with most years, there is a significant variation in yields across the county; 2015 yields in the South were particularly strong.  However harvest began relatively late in many areas with bad weather halting progress a number of times.  The full details can be found at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/5988