The UK Rapeseed Crop This Year And Next
We're almost ready to harvest it, yet opinion is still quite widely divided on exactly how much rapeseed there is in the UK this year.
According to the HCGA/DEFRA there's 568,300 hectares of the stuff, a mere 5% fall on last season's 598,000 hectares.
Copa-Cogeca and the Andersons Centre say 530,000 hectares, a more serious reduction of 11.4% on last year.
BASF say "no more than 500,000 hectares" - a drop of 16.4%.
With yields generally anticipated at around 3 MT/hectare this season, 9% down on last year's 3.3 MT/hectare, that gives us a crop of anywhere from 1.5 MMT to 1.7 MMT or 14-24% lower than 2008's 1.973 MMT.
One thing that the Andersons and BASF seem to agree on is that there will be more rapeseed planted for the 2010 crop, both seeing a return to around the 600,000 hectare level as realistic.
With the general level of dissatisfaction over wheat prices where they are currently, and for the second year running, there could be quite a few prepared to give rapeseed a go for 2010.
In 2007 the planted area was 664,000 hectares, sticking with a 1 in 3 rotation pattern could push plantings for next season up above the 600,000 mark.
According to the HCGA/DEFRA there's 568,300 hectares of the stuff, a mere 5% fall on last season's 598,000 hectares.
Copa-Cogeca and the Andersons Centre say 530,000 hectares, a more serious reduction of 11.4% on last year.
BASF say "no more than 500,000 hectares" - a drop of 16.4%.
With yields generally anticipated at around 3 MT/hectare this season, 9% down on last year's 3.3 MT/hectare, that gives us a crop of anywhere from 1.5 MMT to 1.7 MMT or 14-24% lower than 2008's 1.973 MMT.
One thing that the Andersons and BASF seem to agree on is that there will be more rapeseed planted for the 2010 crop, both seeing a return to around the 600,000 hectare level as realistic.
With the general level of dissatisfaction over wheat prices where they are currently, and for the second year running, there could be quite a few prepared to give rapeseed a go for 2010.
In 2007 the planted area was 664,000 hectares, sticking with a 1 in 3 rotation pattern could push plantings for next season up above the 600,000 mark.