22% rise in wheat area for harvest for 2014

A new survey from HGCA (the cereals and oilseeds division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) claims there will be a sharp rise in the total area of wheat and winter barley for harvest 2014, compared to a year earlier.

A team of agronomists assessing 280,000ha of arable land have forecast that the total wheat area, including spring wheat, will increase by 22% to 1.98m hectares at the UK level.

Winter barley is also set to rise 55% to 484,000ha compared with 2013 – the highest UK winter barley area seen in a decade.

Additionally, the survey predicts the second-highest oilseed rape area ever cropped, behind 2012, at 740,000ha – an increase of 3% against the estimated harvest area of 2013.