Final area figures for 2016 indicate some slight area change alterations compared with what I stated last week in the Irish Farmers Journal. Some were slightly bigger or smaller than indicated a week ago due to updates to the 2016 data. Oats was the only crop which actually became positive for area change. All others just showed altered levels of change. The more up-to-date level of change is shown in Table 1 for the main field crops.
Final area figures for 2016 indicate some slight area change alterations compared with what I stated last week in the Irish Farmers Journal. Some were slightly bigger or smaller than indicated a week ago due to updates to the 2016 data.
Oats was the only crop which actually became positive for area change. All others just showed altered levels of change. The more up-to-date level of change is shown in Table 1 for the main field crops.
The fall in barley areas, both winter and spring, was greater than originally estimated and winter wheat area also fell by more than the initial calculation.
The fall in spring oats was much lower than estimated, while winter oat area is actually up by 901ha. This leaves the total area of oats up on 2016 by over 700ha. The triticale numbers are broadly similar and I dropped in rye in Table 1 for completeness.
On balance, the cereal area change is 15,022ha compared with the estimated 16,022ha stated last week. Most other crops were broadly similar to the initial estimates, but fodder beet was back rather than up slightly and the overall protein crop increase was fractionally lower. The reduction in potato area was more than double my initial estimate.
Tillage management: take note of patches of weeds and oilseed rape
Tillage management: Mixed weather speeding up winter barley ripening
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: