2012 Cropped Areas and Production April 17, 2013 12:00 am DEFRA released its final figures for the 2012 June Census of Agriculture in the UK in late December. The figures are not much different to the provisional results released back in September. The table below sets out some of the main crop areas. As expected the wheat and oilseed rape areas were up for the third year running. Barley area gained a little ground, particularly in the winter varieties. The field bean area reduced yet again compared to the previous year and in 2012 was almost half the 2009 area. The other noticeable fall is in the fallow area with the drive for greater farm efficiency, drive to find more land and make use of the high grain prices. This level of fallow land is unknown in the UK at least in recent (post set-aside) years. FINAL UK JUNE 2012 CENSUS AND CROP PRODUCTION – Source: DEFRA AREA – ‘000 Ha 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Final Change 11-12 WHEAT Yield (tonnes per Ha) Production (‘000 tonnes) 2,080 8.3 17,227 1,775 7.9 14,076 1,939 7.7 14,878 1,969 7.7 15,257 1,992 6.7 13,261 +2% +14% -13% BARLEY Winter Barley Spring Barley Yield (tonnes per Ha) Production (‘000 tonnes) 1,032 416 616 6.0 6,144 1,143 403 740 5.8 6,668 921 383 539 5.7 5,252 970 359 611 5.7 5,494 1,002 385 618 5.5 5,522 +3% +7% +1% -3% +0.5% OATS Yield (tonnes per Ha) Production (‘000 tonnes) 135 5.8 784 129 5.8 744 124 5.5 685 109 5.6 613 122 5.1 627 -12% -9% +2% OTHER CEREALS 27 28 29 27 26 -5% TOTAL CEREALS Production (‘000 tonnes) 3,274 3,075 21,618 3,013 20,946 3,075 21,485 3,142 19,515 +2% -9% OILSEED RAPE Winter Oilseed Rape Spring Oilseed Rape Yield (tonnes per Ha) Production (‘000 tonnes) 598 577 21 3.3 1,973 570 520 50 3.4 1,912 642 622 20 3.5 2,230 705 680 24 3.9 2,758 756 744 12 3.4 2,557 +7% +9% -51% -14% -7% LINSEED 16 31 44 36 28 -24% SUGAR BEET 120 114 118 113 120 +6.5% POTATOES 144 144 138 146 149* +2% FIELD BEANS 118 186 168 125 96 -23% COMBINING PEAS 30 42 42 30 24 -20% MAIZE 153 163 164 164 158 -4% FALLOW & SET-ASIDE 194 244 174 156 153 -2% With the confirmation of the cropped areas announced, DEFRA and the other UK Agricultural Departments have been able to publish their final assessments of total crop sizes of cereals and oilseeds. Therefore the table also shows UK cereal and OSR production estimates. The results illustrate that, compared with 2011, the 2012 cereals crop is almost 10% smaller overall.
