Grain harvest in England shows a mixed picture
The grain harvest this season in England is showing a mixed picture, with a sharp decline in wheat but a modest increase in barley and a significant growth in oat yields.
Wheat: Smallest yield since 2020
The largest decline is for wheat, which at 10 million tons yielded is 22% less than in 2023. This is due to a combination of an 11% smaller area and a 12% lower yield per hectare due to the bad weather, according to preliminary estimates from the rural ministry Defra. The total yield is the smallest since 2020, when sowing was also greatly hampered by bad weather.
Bad weather and sowing problems
The yield of winter barley is 26% below that of last year due to last autumn’s sowing problems. However, this was also sufficiently compensated in England by spring barley, so that the total barley harvest of 4.9 million tons was still 2.7% higher than in 2023. Due to the later sowing, the area of spring barley was also 28% larger than years ago.
Oats
An estimated 773,000 tons of oats were harvested, which is 20% more than the previous season thanks to an 11% larger area and an 8.5% higher yield per hectare.
Oilseed rape
Furthermore, Defra reports a decline of 33% to 687,000 tonnes in the oilseed rape harvest. The area was 29% smaller, while the yield per hectare fell by 7.9% compared to a year ago.
Harvest figures for other parts of the UK will be announced later.
