EU & UK: Spring barley acreage expected to hardly change from 2021

Winter weather was fairly mild, with sufficient precipitation and excellent seedbeds all over the EU except for the Western Mediterranean part, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their early March report.

As per Coceral, the EU spring barley acreage will hardly change from 2021.

In France, up to 30% of the anticipated total spring barley plantings took place in December; then spring planting restarted in February, and is almost finished everywhere south of Paris. The French spring barley acreage is expected close to last year’s 530 thousand ha. As to varieties, plantings in France are 65% KWS Faro winter and Planet 75% spring barley.

Spring seeding also commenced in South England and Southwest Germany.

In Scandinavia, where seeding normally takes place in April, it is hoped that yields will be much better than last year’s poor results, resulting in 5.7 vs. last year‘s 4.7 mln tonnes of spring barley for Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

Only Spain and Portugal are too dry, COAG, the Farmers Association, predicts bad yield losses, unless good rains arrive quickly.

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