Earlybird Survey 2013 November 27, 2013 12:00 am The HGCA’s Earlybird crop area survey (undertaken by the Andersons Centre) has been published. It shows a big recovery in winter cereals cropping for next harvest, with the wheat area rising by over 20% compared to 2013. The survey provides a guide to plantings and intended plantings for the 2014 harvest. It has, in previous years, proved very accurate at an extremely early stage of the crop year. It measures crop areas planted by early November and planting intentions assuming ‘normal’ winter weather conditions. It does not take account of the condition of drilled crops. The table below shows the estimated crop areas for 2014 when the Early Bird results are overlaid onto UK provisional 2013 crop area figures: EARLY BIRD SURVEY (EBS) ESTIMATES OF GB CROP AREAS FOR HARVEST 2014 ‘000 hectares DEFRA June Survey 2013 EBS Forecast 2013/14 Change All Wheat 1,626 1,983 +22% Winter Barley 313 484 +55% Spring Barley 902 534 -41% Oats 176 130 -26% Other Cereals 26 13 -51% OSR 715 740 +3% Other Oilseeds 38 14 -62% Pulses 148 145 -2% Arable Fallow 255 164 -36% Other Crops on Arable Land 565 558 – 1% Source: HGCA /The Andersons Centre The survey demonstrates that the wheat area is expected to be up by 22% from 2013, giving a UK wheat area of 1.98 million hectares. This would take it back to near 2012 levels. Winter barley is seen as being strongly up as well, reflecting the good drilling conditions this autumn and keenness for some arable farmers to extend the harvest period next year in the light of problems experienced in the last two growing seasons. Spring barley area is predictably substantially lower. The oilseed rape area according to the survey is higher than many people expected at a 3% increase on last year. We would expect the vast majority of this to be winter oilseed rape; back to the normal proportion of about 98% winter, 2% spring crop. Pulses too appear to be holding up, with a higher area than usual, whilst fallow land returns to levels it was at prior to 2013.
