English wheat area takes a tumble
English wheat area takes a tumble
ENGLANDs wheat area tumbled by a fifth last season, according to DEFRAs provisional June 2001 census.
The results, based on a survey of about 28,000 holdings, reveal that just 1.57m ha (3.88m acres) of wheat was harvested this year for a total crop of about 12m tonnes. In contrast the barley area rose by 14%, mainly due to a huge increase in the spring-sown area.
Livestock figures contained in the census reflect the impact of foot-and-mouth disease – an 11% drop in the beef herd indicating that many animals were caught in Cumbria and Devon, which were badly affected by F&M. The English dairy herd, fell by 5% over the year to 1.5m animals, provides further evidence of F&Ms impact, while the number of sheep aged 12 months or over fell by 14% to about 8.1m.The number of lambs fell 18% to 8m. *
Although more light lambs will have gone into the welfare disposal scheme since June 1, the Meat and Livestock Commission still predicts a surplus this season, given that 30% of lambs would have been exported in a normal season.
The pig breeding herd fell 8% to 548,000. But gilt figures show sharper declines, with 27% fewer expected to be used for breeding.