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.

+2%

-9%

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

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.   

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