Farming News - Provisional 2018 wheat harvest for the UK is 14.1 million tonnes says Defra

Provisional 2018 wheat harvest for the UK is 14.1 million tonnes says Defra

The provisional 2018 wheat harvest for the UK is 14.1 million tonnes, a decrease of 5.1% on 2017. It is below the five year average 2013-2017 of 14.8 million tonnes.

The provisional barley production figure for the UK has decreased by 7.9% to 6.6 million tonnes in 2018. It is below the five year average 2013-2017 of 7.0 million tonnes.

Crop production has been affected by the weather this year (high rainfall in spring and a long dry spell with high temperatures in the summer) causing varying yields across regions of the UK.

The NFU said last week that wheat yields reached 7.7 tonnes per hectare, falling below the five year average of 8.2 tonnes per hectare and hitting its lowest yield since 2013.

Full UK provisional results including yield and area data for wheat and barley, along with results for the remaining cereal and oilseed rape crops will be published on Thursday 11th October.