According to Tike´s advance harvest estimates, this year´s cereal harvest will reach 4.2 billion kilos. The grain crop is 460 million kilos higher than last year. 80% of the harvest is feed grain: 2.0 billion kilos of barley and 1.3 billion kilos of oats. The rye harvest is 87 million kilos, or 37 million kilos more than the harvest of 2006. More accurate harvest figures will be available in January 2008, when Tike publishes the final harvest statistics for 2007.

Cereal harvest for 2007 4.2 billion kilos

Threshing was successful everywhere in Finland, and good yields per hectare were harvested for almost all cereals. Barley yields per hectare (3,700 kg/ha) are the highest in the history of harvest statistics, started in 1920, and wheat yields per hectare (3,860 kg/ha) are the second highest. Due to good yields per hectare, the total cereal harvest has increased to 4.2 billion kilos. It is the second biggest cereal harvest in Finnish history, after the record harvest (4.3 billion kilos) of 1990.

Harvest increase for all cereals

The oat harvest increased the most. In the autumn, 1.3 billion kilos of oats were threshed, which is approximately 230 million kilos more than in 2006. The wheat harvest also increased significantly, by almost 120 million kilos. The rye harvest, 87 million kilos, was a remarkable 72% (37 million kg) higher than the harvest of 2006. The barley harvest also increased a little, by 67 million kilos, and its total yield was 2.0 billion kilos, which is almost half of Finland´s cereal harvest.

Potato and sugar beet produced high yields per hectare

Sugar beet cultivation continued to decrease sharply from last year. The area under sugar beet fell by a third, to 16,000 hectares. However, the highest yields per hectare (41,800 kg/ha) in the history of the crop were harvested from this area, producing a total harvest of approx. 667 million kilos. Good potato yields per hectare (25,800 kg/ha) were also harvested, the total harvest increasing to 20% higher than last year.

Low turnip rape yields per hectare

For turnip rape growers, the growing season was poor. The yields per hectare remained small (1,210 kg/ha), partly due to flea beetle damage in the spring. The turnip rape harvest, 95 million kilos, is almost a third lower than in 2006.

This is advance information of the final harvest statistics, which will be published 17.1.2008. The harvest statistics are based on information provided by growers. The information was gathered by telephone from approximately 5,700 growers. The harvest area for field crops has been calculated by deducting the known area of crop failure from the cultivated area given by growers in their subsidy applications.

Additional information
Anneli Partala, Researcher, Tel. +358 20 77 21376
The format of e-mail addresses is firstname.lastname@mmmtike.fi