Average year for overall cereal harvest despite challenging wet conditions

The Chief Statistician has released figures on the 2024 Scottish harvest. Total cereal production from the 2024 harvest is around 3.0 million tonnes.

Wet weather in 2024 made winter planting difficult and continued into spring planting. Because of this, less land was planted with winter crops, and more land was used for spring crops.

Both winter barley and wheat production fell below their five-year average levels, decreasing from 2023. Spring barley had an above average year, with production reaching around 1.7 million tonnes.

While it was a good year for oats yield, the area planted and total production (0.18 million tonnes) were below average. Oilseed rape production (0.13 million tonnes) also dropped slightly below average, after a record year in 2023.

Background

Results from ‘Cereal and oilseed rape harvest: final estimates – 2024’ are published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. The full statistical publication provides estimates of land use area, yield and production for spring and winter barley, wheat, oats and oilseed rape for 2024.

The 2024 final estimates of yield and production are based on land use areas estimated from the 2024 June Agricultural Census and production results from the Cereal Production Survey 2024.

The full statistical publication is available with supporting data tables and a visual summary at:

Cereal and oilseed rape harvest: final estimates - 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Accredited official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.