Spring sowings spiral up
Spring sowings spiral up
SPRING sowings are set to soar by an extra 450,000ha, suggests Dalgety. An 18% drop in winter wheat and 11% drop in winter barley drillings following atrocious weather is to blame.
Spring barley will take the lions share of the extra area, reaching a total of just over 800,000ha, or 300,000ha up on last year, it says. Wheat surplus for export will be cut to about 2m tonnes as a result.
Spring barley seed supplies are expected to be sufficient for a 30-40% increase in area. "We have sold out of spring beans, and spring oats, but the spring barley situation overall is not too bad," says national seeds manager Barry Barker.
Spring wheat seed is also extremely limited. However, there is plenty of spring oilseed rape seed and linseed seed. Some pea varieties are also available.