Wheat area in England has climbed 10.4 percent to 1.9 million hectares, boosted by high prices, Britain's farm ministry said on Thursday, quoting results of a December agriculture survey. Winter barley area was put 13.9 percent higher at 366,000 ha while oats rose 12.1 percent to 106,000 ha, the ministry said.
"Due to the removal of set-aside and strong market prices there has been an overall increase in the areas of main autumn/winter-sown crops," the ministry said. Global wheat prices have risen to record highs this year.
The EU agreed on September 26 to suspend a rule forcing farmers to leave some land fallow, known as set-aside, in a bid to increase grain supply at a time of shrinking stocks. The estimate of arable land which will be uncropped in 2007/08 fell by 40 percent to 255,000 ha.
Figures for the UK will be released on March 27. Rising prices for feed grains has, however, hurt the profitability of the livestock sector and the ministry estimated the total number of pigs in England, as of December, was nearly 3.8 million, down 1.5 percent from a year earlier.
The report noted the pigs breeding herd was now nearly half the size it was in 1990. Cattle numbers also dropped, by 2.1 percent to 5.5 million. There was a rise in sheep and lamb numbers by 1.1 percent to just over 11 million but that could also be attributed to unfavourable market conditions, the ministry said. "The rise is due to an increase of almost nine percent in the number of lambs which may be due to farmers holding back lambs from sale due to poor prices," the ministry said. The size of the sheep breeding flock was down 2.6 percent at just under 6.6 million.