Brian Henderson writes that this years harvest is looking green

And while this has been causing a good deal of angst in the industry, it looks like a lot of this year’s cereal crops have decided to get in on the act as well - and rather than re-wilding, many of the spring sown barley and oat crops certainly seem to have gone in for a good deal of 're-greening'.

In our own area, with a wide range of soil types and depths - even within individual fields -the near-drought conditions of June saw some of the spring-sown crops on thinner soils and over rockheads, or on gravel swathes and even on sandier patches dry up and all but die. However the monsoon-like weather we’ve pretty much been suffering since July has seen many of these patches resuscitated and resurrected at the last moment, producing secondary tillers and green growth which is now about a month behind other parts of the same crop.

So within a single field there is a range of maturity – from fully ripe to still pure green, making it extremely difficult to predict just when to go in with the combine.

While some spring crops have been cut, the net result of this uneven ripening has been to turn even the most reliable of moisture metres into little more than a random number generator – which probably stands just as good a chance of predicting the winning National Lottery numbers as it does indicating the actual moisture content of a sample.

The spring oats are probably highlighting this the most at the moment. And while the bulk of some fields which got their growth regulator are now approaching ripeness and standing at about two foot tall, the regrowth, which is still pure green is literally standing head and shoulders above this, not having been at the right growth stage when the regulator was applied. So I strongly suspect that there’s more than likely to be a few wrapped reels to be enjoyed when cutting those.

But while the spring barley and the oats seem to be running late, the wheat has, surprisingly, stepped in to allow us to get on with at least some combining during the all-too-rare spells of drier weather. And while we don’t have any firm figures yet, the view from the combine seat, and the yield meter would indicate that the averages will be at least respectable.

So far, both the grain and the straw have been a deal bonnier than they sometimes are in the wheat fields as well, with a yellower tint to the latter which would be nice to capture if the weather allows a chance for baling to take place within a reasonable amount of time after cutting.

Back on the spring barley front it would be difficult to say if some of the difference is due to variety or if it’s all been down to time and place of sowing. That said, though, while even some of the fields treated to an application of 3 litres to the hectare of “liquid sunshine” are still taking their own sweet time to ripen off, Laureate looks to be slightly evener than some of the other varieties. But the combine still needs to make a significant inroad into that crop to let us really judge if there has been any significant varietal difference.

On which topic I tuned into a Teams meeting organised by the British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) recently which highlighted some of the hoops which new varieties have to jump through to make their way onto the national list.

For while many growers might only come across the BSPB when they have to fill in their forms for the payment of variety royalties on farm saved seed, the organisation has an important role to play in the encouragement and assessment of new varieties.

And while most folk know about the DUS (distinctness, uniformity and stability) criteria which any new varieties have to meet, there are a few more necessary including the VCU (value for cultivation and use) to meet before they make it onto the National List which allows the crop to be grown in the UK. And that’s all before the AHDB carries out further trials to see if they offer a significant benefit over existing varieties, a trait which would then see the variety added to the descriptive Recommended Lists.

And at the cost to breeders of close to three quarters of a million pounds to get a variety approved for the National list, it is important that breeders have sufficient incentive and returns from their intellectual property rights to keep up this level of investment – hence the royalty payments extending farm saved seed.

However, while new varieties have always been tested on a number of sites across different parts of the UK over a couple of years to ensure that they are suitable to be grown in different regions, the continued political wrangling over the future adoption of precision breeding techniques could see this end.

If the Scottish Government’s reluctance to accept the commercial growing of crops produced by techniques such as gene editing continues – and the current Bute House agreement with the Green Party is, by all accounts, likely to make this more likely – then a separate list will be required.

And, with Wales adopting a similarly dim view of the technology, it looks like there will be an additional “England Only” list for gene edited varieties.

But while the BSPB didn’t comment on this, and despite all the assurances from many of our own scientists and researchers that gene editing is only one of a number of new tools, it’s hard not to conclude that, in the long run, Scotland will be denied the benefits of new varieties which have been bred with the benefit of more targeted and swifter selection procedures.

Worse than that though, is the fact that we are also likely to end up high and dry without a paddle in a dead-end cul-de-sac when it comes to a continued flow of new varieties.

Because you have to ask which breeders would be willing to continue to make the substantial investment involved in generating new varieties using older, slower technology for such a small market which is actually, in world terms, miniscule?

So, in the future, as we look across the Border, it might not only be our crops which are showing a tinge of green…