Wheat and barley on the up

Jul 22 2008 by Tom Patterson, The Journal

THE area sown to wheat and barley has seen a significant increase compared to last year, according to the HGCA Planting Survey.

Set-aside area has fallen sharply as expected following the 0% set-aside policy, similar to oilseed rape, which is seen down after the record crop in 2007/08.

The HGCA Planting Survey is the first comprehensive estimates of Great Britain’s winter and spring cereal and oilseed plantings.

HGCA economist Icaro Rebolledo said: “The results indicate that the wheat and barley area is sharply up this year while oats area is also estimated slightly higher.

“Oilseed rape planted has decreased compared to last year. The Planting Survey estimates Great Britain wheat area for harvest 2008 at 2.068M ha., an increase of 262,000 ha (14%) on last year.

“Estimates for spring barley area show 565,000 ha for this season, while winter barley area is set at 416,000 ha, these represent an increase of 14% and 10% respectively.

“Total barley is estimated at 981k ha, an increase of 12% on last year.”

This season’s HGCA Planting Survey was carried out in conjunction with the HGCA Variety Survey for the third time.

The Variety Survey provides a breakdown of the 2008 UK wheat and barley crops by individual varieties and gives estimates of the likely area by nabim wheat groups.

Based on the results of the survey, around 15% of the 2008 Great Britain wheat crop was planted to Group 1 varieties, which is unchanged on last season.

Group 2 varieties account for 16% of the surveyed area (19% last season) and Group 3 varieties make up 23% (32% last season).

Group 4 wheat was planted on 37% of the surveyed area, an increase from 10% last season, with 9% of area outside of the nabim classification system (8% last year).