Preliminary acreage for winter crops - 25% less rapeseed, 22% more W. barley
As reported by the Federal Statistical Office, the sowing area of winter cereals for the 2019 harvest is 438,800 hectares (+9%) above the acreage of 2018. Winter cereals include winter wheat, winter barley, rye and winter cereals, and triticale.
The sowing area of winter wheat , the most important cereal in Germany, is 133 400 hectares resp .4.6% rose to 3.03 million hectares. Wintergerste's acreage is expected to grow by just under 13% to 1.37 million hectares from 2018. This is 156,400 hectares more than in the crop year 2018. The cultivation of triticale is expected to increase by 34,200 hectares to 391,800 hectares in the year 2019 (+12.9%). There was a very significant increase in the sowning area of rye and winter cereals: at the 2019 harvest, it totaled 637,000 hectares, an increase of 22% .
At the same time, the sowing of winter rape was significantly reduced: while in 2018 the acreage amounted to 1.22 million hectares, the sowing area at the 2019 harvest of 917,100 hectares decreased by one quarter (-306,400 hectares). The acreage of winter rape fell in all federal states, which is due to the drought before and after sowing. The production of winter rape in Saxony-Anhalt (- 49%), Hesse (-40%) and Brandenburg (-39%) was the clearest.
The projected sowing areas are based on notifications from a limited number of harvest reporters in the federal states from the end of November 2018. Therefore, these results are to be considered as cultivation trends, which may change until the 2019 harvest by Auswinterungsschäden, pest and disease infestation.
With average yield expectations , therefore, a larger crop harvest is to be expected.Only when the acreage for the summer crops is known can more specific trend values be made for the 2019 crop.
In the case of rapeseed cultivation , assuming a 5-year average yield of just under 38 dt / ha, a harvest of approx. 3.5 million t come out. Thus, the weak result of the previous year is being reached again.
