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Farmers In Lothian And Borders Hear Of Turmoil In Ukraine

Director of Central Plains Group speaks on farm in St Boswells

The dreadful conflict in Ukraine, and its impact on farmers in the war-ravaged country struck a deep chord with NFU Scotland members at an on-farm meeting hosted by Mertoun Farm Estates at St Boswells last week.

Talking on the subject of ‘Global Grain Markets’, the group were addressed by guest speaker Dr Keith Dawson who is a founder and director of the Central Plains Group, which farms extensively in Ukraine.

As Dr Dawson explained: “Vladimir Putin has weaponised fuel, fertiliser and food in just a few short weeks and the difficulties will continue for some time to come.”

He noted that currently around a quarter of last year’s harvest in Ukraine is still in store and that, in a month’s time, the 2022 harvest will start. “The questions are huge. Just where will the harvest be stored or shifted even if they can harvest and in 10 weeks’ time we will have to start drilling next year’s crop – will that be possible?”

Asked why he was farming in West Ukraine, Dr Dawson answered: “It has wonderful soils, plenty of rain and it is flat. What’s not to like?” He added that, over the years of that the Central Plains Group had been growing crops, the local communities have benefitted hugely through the prosperity that farming has brought to the area.

“CPG has finished planting all our crops in the West of Ukraine but it's not without its risks – when you find a WW2 grenade in the potato grading line you have a heart stopping moment or two!

“Some of the farmland in the East has been mined by the Russians and this will have to be cleared before it is once again usable. We have already had the recent tragedy of a tractor driver in Ukraine killed by driving over a land mine,” said Dr Dawson.

He is quietly optimistic that one day life will return to a new normal in Ukraine, but it will be a while. Meantime the group is doing all that it can continue farming and support the local population; donations and just giving on the day raised hundreds of pounds. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/help-cpg-ukraine

Host for the visit was Jack Parsons, farm manager for Mertoun Estate Farms and responsible for nearly 1,500 hectares of arable crops, vining peas, and potatoes for the seed market. Farmer’s co-op, Scottish Agronomy also run its southern combinable trial plots on the farm. Cultivation is mainly minimum tillage with a little ploughing in the rotation for the control of grass weeds, and a Vaderstad seed drill is used for planting. The visiting farmers were able to view the Estate’s investment in centralised facilities including an intake and cleaning system and dry grain storage.

As Jack explained: “When I came to Ploughlands seven years ago we had very little storage space for grain. We can now store all our combinable crops in one place and found that last year - with the demise of the Inglis business at Charlesfield - we were able to provide storage facilities for some of our neighbours too.”

“The rotation is being extended with the addition of vining peas and green manure and we can stretch potatoes to one year in every eight or ten. We have a straw for muck arrangement with a neighbour as well as letting sheds for cattle and pigs. We keep harvest traffic to a minimum with nine metre combine headers on 36 metre tramlines and use floatation trailer tyres. Tramlines are put in with the sprayer on an RTK system, so they can be in the same place year after year. We also leave three metres ‘roadways’ in the potato crop for spraying and plant these with oats. The oats act as soil conditioners, reduce erosion and assist in pest management.”

He captured the concerns of everyone present when he talked about the impact of costs. At Mertoun, fuel costs are up 100%, fertiliser 250% and electricity 80%. ENDS

Notes for Editors

NFU Scotland Lothian and Borders region has now run three arable events and will announce events for the livestock sector shortly.

Author: Bob Carruth

Date Published: 08/06/2022

News Article No.: 57/22

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Bob Carruth

A dairy farmer’s son, I joined NFU Scotland in 1999 after 13 years as an agricultural journalist. Following spells as a regional manager and policy lead on milk, livestock and animal health and welfare, I became Communications Director in 2008.

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