Livestocks and cereals well down
The results of the December Agricultural Survey have shown drops in livestock numbers and in the area of winter-sown cereals.
The area of winter-sown crops was down 11 per cent on last the previous year, at 174,000 hectares. There were 93,000 hectares of wheat, down 11 per cent, and 42,000 hectares of winter barley. The barley figure was 20 per cent down on 2016 – and was the lowest since the 1970s.
Overall cattle numbers fell to 1.69 million with a 1.3 per cent drop in the number of beef cattle being offset by a rise of 0.3 per cent in the number of dairy cows. Sheep numbers fell 3 per cent to 4.91 million, pig numbers fell 6 per cent to 345,000, and poultry numbers were back 1 per cent.
NFU Scotland’s combinable crops chairman Ian Sands said the large drop in winter plantings of cereals reinforced what farmers had been saying over the last few months:
“This downturn in winter sowing is largely due to the dreadful harvest suffered by many farmers throughout Scotland causing fields to not be cleared in time and poor planting conditions from the persistent rain during the summer and autumn months.”
However he stressed that the knock-on consequences of the disruption to planned rotations was likely to impact for years to come.
The AHDB’S Scottish cereals specialist, Gavin Dick, added that there was also a significant area of wheat established well after optimum drilling dates.
“And it’s likely that yields will have been compromised for those crops,” said Dick.