Defra have releases the first estimate of wheat and barley production from the 2021 UK harvest. It has been produced rapidly in response to the industry requirements to use the data as soon as possible.  

These UK results are produced using England and Scotland provisional data. Wales and Northern Ireland do not produce provisional harvest estimates, therefore data for both has been rolled over from 2020.  

Due to the early timing of the release, these figures are subject to revisions as further results from the harvest are received and analysed. Updated figures for England and Scotland will be combined with 2021 results for Northern Ireland and Wales in the final estimates due to be published in December 2021. 

Table 1: Production of wheat and barley on UK agricultural holdings 2016-2021

                                                                                                                               Thousand tonnes

• The provisional 2021 wheat harvest for the UK is 14.0 million tonnes, an increase of 45% on 2020.  It is above the five-year average 2016-2021 of 13.7 million tonnes.
• The provisional barley production figure for the UK has decreased by 12.4% to 7.1 million tonnes in 2021.  It is below the five-year average 2016-2020 of 7.3 million tonnes.

Full 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 14 October.