Oat harvest predicted to be higher this year

Farmers in the country have sown more oats and peas this year than in the previous year, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

This year, the oat area will post a 10 per cent increase year on year. The area sown with oats is roughly 347,000 hectares, approaching the feed barley area of 380,000 hectares, said a Luke press release.

“This year, the area sown with peas is expected to exceed 25,000 hectares, a new record in the over 100-year history of the statistics. In contrast the decline in turnip rape and rapeseed production will continue, and their area will be the smallest since 1977,” said Anneli Partala, a senior statistician at Luke.

The area sown with cereals – 1.1 million hectares – is nearly half of the utilised agricultural area available in Finland (2.3 million hectares). Barley remains the most common cereal, as it is an important feed crop on farms. Oats account for one-third and wheat makes up one-fifth of the total cultivation area. This year, rye only covers some two per cent of the cultivation area, and its area has halved from the previous year.

Last year, the rye yield was the highest since 1990. This year’s rye area is 20,000 hectares, only half of that in the previous year. If yields are normal, this area cannot meet the domestic demand for rye of roughly 100,000 tonnes a year. The yields to be harvested next autumn cannot be estimated at present.

The volume remaining in stocks from last autumn’s high rye yield of roughly 180,000 tonnes is higher than usual. This would compensate for the upcoming autumn’s possibly low rye yield.

The total area sown with turnip rape and rapeseed is 30,000 hectares, the smallest in 53 years. However, there are more pea fields in Finland than ever before during the over 100-year history of the statistics. The caraway area of 20,000 hectares will decrease by 15 per cent this year from that in 2019.

The feed grass area of roughly 780,000 hectares covers one-third of the country’s utilised agricultural area, being slightly lower than that in the previous year. The area of regular and environmental fallows will decrease by less than one-tenth, and they account for less than one-fifth of the Finland’s utilised agricultural land.