Scotland’s area of winter-sown crops is estimated to show a fall of 5% due to a wet autumn in 2012, although the fall was not as marked as the decline of nearly one-fifth in England and Wales.

Overall autumn drillings of wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape north of the border fell to 180,000ha, according to the Scottish government’s December 2012 Agricultural Survey.

“The weather in 2012 was challenging for farmers in many parts of Scotland and that is clearly reflected in today’s figures,” said Scotland’s rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead. Winter wheat planting in Scotland fell 15% to 84,000ha, the lowest area reported in the past 10 years, while autumn oilseed rape drillings were down 2% to 35,000ha.

Sowings of winter barley were up 10% at 53,900ha to give Scotland its highest area since 2007, while the winter oats area was up 5% to 6,700ha.

The falls were not as dramatic as in England and Wales where the overall winter cropping area saw a fall of 19% to 2.417m hectares, while some poorly established crops may be abandoned and ripped up.

Winter wheat drillings in England and Wales were off 25% at 1.394m hectares, barley was down 19%, oats off 30% while oilseed rape fell 1%.

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