Increase in winter planting followed by a decrease in spring planting

Winter planted crops are generally sown in autumn and grown during the winter. Spring planted crops are generally sown during the first three months of the year.

The area used to grow winter crops increased by four per cent compared with the five year average. This is mostly due to a four per cent increase in the area used to grow wheat, around 107,200 hectares.

The increase in the area of winter planted crops was followed by a decrease in spring planting. Spring planted crops decreased two per cent compared with the five year average. This was driven mainly by a 27 per cent decrease in the area used to grow spring oats.

Information on spring and winter crop area in this section has a gap in 2022 due to the survey being paused in 2022.

Figure 4: Areas of spring and winter planting of cereals between the five year average (2017:2021) and 2023