Origin, the on-farm agronomy company, reported revenues of €307.3m for the first quarter of their 2014 financial year.

This represents a decline of 12.5% on the same period last year and reflects the lower feed and fertilizer prices.

However, the higher margin agronomy services performed ‘strongly’ during the period.

With 90% of Origin’s earnings now recorded in the second half of the year, the increased crop plantings across Britain and Poland bodes well for the year as a whole.

In Britain, plantings of (winter) wheat and oil seed are up 23% and 15%, respectively, while this week’s statement outlined how plantings in Poland have also made a strong start.

Conversely, business to business sales have experienced a slower start this year as customers are holding off making such purchasing decisions until as late as possible, given the ongoing fall in fertilizer prices.

“The current cropping profile provides a strong platform for the seasonally more-important second half of the financial year,” said a company statement.

Origin’s stock is up 79% in 2013 and currently trades on 13.5 times 2014 earnings and offers a dividend yield of 2.3%.