Nearly 75 000 hectares of winter rape have been sown this autumn. This is 7 percent more than last year and 35 percent more than the average for the past five years. The increase has above all occurred in the counties of Södermanland, Östergötland, Kalmar, Skåne and Halland.
In some areas of Stockholm, Uppsala and Gotland counties, considerable rain fell during late summer. This heavy rainfall led to difficulties when the ground was being prepared for the autumn sowing. Thus, part of the planned sowing did not happen. In contrast, the weather was very conducive to autumn sowing in southern parts of the country.
Winter wheat areas somewhat larger
Winter wheat is the most commonly sown crop in the autumn. This autumn, 352 600 hectares were sown. This is an increase of five percent compared to the previous autumn.
Rye and triticale areas reduced
Rye areas increased sharply last autumn but are now back at a lower level. This year's autumn sowing of rye amounted to 27 800 hectares, which is about 20 percent less than last autumn. The areas for triticale amounted to 40 400 hectares and have decreased by 30 percent compared to last year.
The total autumn sown areas are large this year also
This year's total areas of autumn sowing of cereals and oilseed crops are estimated at 515 200 hectares. This is at the level of last year's large areas and 10 percent higher than the average for the last five years. The information is based on a survey where nearly 4 000 farmers submitted information to Statistics Sweden about the autumn sown areas.
Publication
More detailed information with presentations by county and production area is published in the Statistical Report JO 18 SM 0901 available on Statistics Sweden's website www.scb.se under Agriculture, forestry and fishery and on the Swedish Board of Agriculture's website www.jordbruksverket.se under Statistics.