There were sales of straw bales at both Borderway Mart in Carlisle and Thainstone Mart in Inverurie over the past week. Strong prices were reported at Borderway, where round bales of wheat and oat straw both sold for £25/bale.

Thainstone sold a total of 474 bales at its fodder sale last Friday. Round bales of barley straw sold for £18/bale on the day. Prices had stayed static on the previous sale of fodder, two weeks earlier.

Large 8x4x4 Heston bales were also on offer and sold for £50/bale. Round bales of hay sold for £25.80/bale.

With reports south of the border highlighting that a larger percentage of straw has been baled this year, it is hopeful that this should help to ease some of the low yields being reported by some farmers.