Barley out of favour but wheat rises in popularity

GROWERS appear to have turned their backs on growing barley, with one of the lowest post-war Great Britain barley areas being revealed in the 2010 Home Grown Cereals Authority planting survey published this week.

The survey shows the GB barley area has fallen by 21 per cent in comparison to 2009, to a total area of 901,000 hectares. This is only the fourth time post-war the barley area has fallen below one million hectares.

"Barley levels seen are similar to those in 2006 and 2007 but the market is likely to be buffered by stocks carried over from the previous season," according to Cereals and Oilseeds analyst Tosin Onikoyi, who managed the surveys.

However, if the barley crop is on the slide, the same survey reveals a robust picture for the 2010 GB wheat and oilseed rape area. In both cases, the results show higher planted areas than 2009.

Wheat has seen a rise of 10 per cent from 1.803 million hectares in 2009 to 1.992 million, while the oilseed rape area is up 14 per cent across GB to 661,000 hectares, closing in on the 2007 record of 681,000.

"All regions have seen an increase in wheat area encouraged by the favourable planting conditions seen in autumn 2009 despite lower ex-farm prices at the time.

"Oilseed rape has benefited from barley's demise and clearly remains the most profitable break crop for a combinable crop enterprise. This year has the potential to be a really strong crop as yields in 2007 were below average.

"All regions have seen a decrease in spring barley plantings, however these could be considered a return to more normal levels. The wet autumn of 2008 meant a lot of land went to spring cropping."