Scottish cereal harvest set to increase
Scotland’s cereal harvest is expected to rise by one-quarter-of-a-million tonnes this year, with spring barley one of the stand-out performers.
The estimates released today by Scotland’s chief statistician will be welcome news to Scottish growers, with last year’s challenging weather causing the largest fall in yields for more than two decades
In total, 3m tonnes of cereals are expected this year, producing a 11% increase on 2012.
The partial recovery has also coincided with the longer-term trend of improving yields, with the average cereal yield for the past 10 years being 7% higher than the previous decade.
Spring barley is predicted to have one of the largest increases, swelling by 15% to 1.7m tonnes. Winter barley is just behind with a predicted increase of 6% to 294,000t.
However, it is oats that is set for the biggest rise, with an increase of about 80% to 195,000t.
The large increase has largely been down to winter wheat and oilseed rape struggling last autumn and having to be replaced.
Wheat yields are expected to dip by 6% to 630,000t, while oilseed rape is also expected to see a small decline of 2% to 104,000t.
Following a tough year for farmers, rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead has welcomed the latest estimates.
“Although cereals are still being harvested and these figures are provisional estimates, today’s expert predictions of a partial recovery after last year’s dreadful drop in production is good news for Scottish agriculture.”
