Black Isle Monitor Farmers Brian Matheson and Caroline claimed the third prize in the percentage of potential yield gained at the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) awards on Thursday. Brian and Caroline, who farm just north of Inverness, achieved 62.5 per cent of their yield potential with a Zulu first winter wheat. Their final yield was 10.9t/ha.

The Monitor Farm community group proved their worth when it came to identifying a good crop.

Brian said: “I had two fields of Zulu and was originally going to enter another one but when the Monitor Farm group looked at the fields they recommended this one. They were right, as the other one only yielded 10.4t/ha.”

The key, Brian says, was attention to detail.

“This is something we’ve also been focussing on with the Monitor Farm programme, especially with the price of wheat where it is. We’ve had to sharpen up our act, and spend more time on the details, such as headland management.”

However, the quality of the field and having a good rotation, say Brian and Caroline, were also key factors in their success.

The crop:

• Sowing rate: 425 seeds/m2
• Sowing date: 15 October 2015
• GS31: 28 April 2015
• GS61: 14 July 2015
• Height to collar: 58cm
• GS87: 10 October 2016

This field on the farm at Ballicherry was traditionally run with livestock. In recent history, it was in grass for seven years and was ploughed four years ago. After that it was in spring barley for two years. The crop immediately before this one was potatoes.

Because of the preceding potato crop, Brian subsoiled, ploughed and then drilled with a Vaderstad Spirit Drill.

Brian said: “We give our agronomist free reign, to go for the highest economic yield. We follow our agronomists’ instruction, but we’ve also benefited from the Monitor Farm group’s input.

“The things we did differently this year from before, were using more sulphur than usual and applying fertiliser late. Perhaps these helped us to reach more of our potential yield. We also ended up drilling later than usual.”

Caroline Matheson added: “We’re lucky here because we have no black-grass to limit our yield. Weather is the biggest challenge, and we’re limited by the amount of sunlight. Our soil isn’t so deep, but we have got good grade 2 soil and good levels of organic matter.”

AHDB Knowledge Exchange Manager for Scotland, Gavin Dick, commented on balancing yield and costs: “The benchmarking exercises we carry out as part of the Monitor Farm programme consistently tell us that yield is king – but only within the context of knowing your cost of production. Fixed costs now account for over 60 per cent of the total cost of production and tonnes are needed to pay for them, so it’s about managing costs to ensure that each spend will return additional yield with a cost benefit, rather than just reducing costs.

“The YEN programme helps growers to understand the components which go into creating yield and therefore helps them target their spend to maximise yield.”

The Monitor Farm network was well represented, with second place in the same category going to Kelso farmer David Fuller-Shapcott, a member of the former AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Monitor Farm in the Borders. Also growing Zulu winter wheat, David achieved 63.5 per cent of his potential yield, harvesting 11.8t/ha at 15 per cent moisture. Like Brian, he attributes his success to attention to detail, along with a focus on good root structure.

He said: “We are limited by light but not moisture, and this year if our wheat hadn’t gone flat before we could get the combine on, our yield would’ve been a lot higher. This affected our cost of production per tonne, too. Other fields using the same programme but harvested at the right time achieved around 13t/ha.”