This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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First estimate of cereal harvest
03/10/2002
The Executive's preliminary estimate of the 2002 Scottish cereal harvest is 2.5 million tonnes.
This is down by just over 4 per cent on the 2001 harvest.
An increase in wheat production - due to an increased area - is more than offset by a decrease in barley production, due both to a lower yield and smaller cropped area.
The figures are based on area figures from the provisional June 2002 census results and an initial estimate of crop yields. The production estimate will be finalised with the publication of the 2002 Cereal Production survey later in the year.
The production estimates for individual cereals are given below with last year's final figures shown in brackets per thousand tonnes:-
Wheat
2002 - 728
2001 - 617
Barley
Winter
2002 - 408
2001 - 345
Spring
2002 - 1292
2001 - 1571
Total
2002 - 1700
2001 - 1916
Oats & other cereals
2002 - 121
2001 - 124
TOTAL CEREALS
2002 - 2549
2001 - 2657
Oilseed Rape
2002 - 108
2001 - (106)
Wheat yields (tonnes per hectare) are provisionally estimated to be 3 per cent down on last year's cereal production survey results. The wheat area sown is up by almost 22 per cent on last year. Barley yields are 8 per cent lower with the cropped area down by over 3 per cent. Oat yield fell by almost 2 per cent while the area grown rose by 2 per cent. Oilseed rape yields increased by 18 per cent but the area grown decreased by 14 per cent compared with 2001 perhaps reflecting a drop in subsidy levels this year as part of the Agenda 2000 reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Totals may not necessary agree with the sum of their components due to rounding.