Cereal and oilseed rape harvest - first estimates: 2017

4. Wheat

Scottish wheat is mostly soft wheats; used predominantly for distilling, but is also used for animal feed. Scotland imports hard wheats for milling (for bread making) as our climate does not suit hard wheat varieties.

Wheat Estimates ( charts 11 and 12)

While the area of wheat production has remained constant in the last few years, production this year is estimated to have increased seven per cent to 988,000 tonnes. Wheat yields were estimated to have risen by seven per cent, less than barley yields probably due to wheat not having been hit so hard in 2016.

Long-term increase in wheat yields has not been as great as in barley, with the latest ten-year period only being two per cent higher than the previous ten years. At 9.02 tonnes per hectare, this year's estimated yield is the third highest on record and considerably above the ten-year average of 8.39.

Chart 11 - Wheat: Area, Yield and Production

Chart 12 - Wheat Year-on-Year Change: Area, Yield and Production