Cereal plantings on the up

For this year's harvest, plantings of ukp export bread wheat are estimated to rise to 41.4 per cent of the total cereals harvested and uks to 48.2 per cent.

HGCA economist, Michael Archer, said: "Given interest in both ukp and uks from overseas buyers this could be good news for UK wheat export prospects."​

Ukp and uks are brands of UK bread wheat exports launched in 2004. They were devised by the HGCA in order to simplify the export of wheat to other EU countries unfamiliar with UK varieties.

Each year, varieties of wheat are tested and, according to their properties are classified as either ukp or uks.

Ukp is a hard wheat, used in breads and uks is a version which can be used in making biscuits and blending with hard grains.

Based on the results of 3,000 questionnaires, the HGCA survey shows that oat in the North East of England increased by 46 per cent from 2005 to 2006.

Wheat plantings also grew but at a slower rate with just a 1 per cent rise.

The increase in oats means that an extra 109,000 hectares of land have been given over to the crop.

The plantings study was undertaken in conjunction with HGCA's annual Cereal Quality Survey (CQS).

Carried out in November of last year, the CQS details the quality of crops such as wheat and barley.

Conducted with the aid of input from farmers, the study details the many varieties of crops and reports on how content differs from region to region.

Wheat was analysed according to region, moisture and protein content and harvest date.

In addition, researchers studied the nitrogen content of barley crops throughout the country.

The report determined that: "Generally favourable weather conditions, a smooth harvest and a reduced planted area gave rise to forecasts of a small but good quality '05 wheat crop in Great Britain."​

Barley however was judged a "mixed quality"​ crop due to a slightly elevated levels of nitrogen - 0.02 per cent - and some varieties being underweight.