Increase in wheat leads to increase in winter planting

Winter crops (wheat, winter barley, and winter oats) are typically sown in autumn and grow during the winter. Spring crops (spring barley and spring oats) are generally sown between January and March.  

The total area used to grow winter crops increased by 3.6% compared with the five-year average. This was due to an increase in the area used to grow winter oats (10%) and wheat (5.4%). The area used to grow winter barley decreased by 1.8% but was up 1.3% on the previous year.     

The total area used to grow spring planted crops decreased by 0.5% compared with the five-year average. Spring oats decreased by 7.0% (though up 1.4% on the previous year), while spring barley remained in line with the five-year average (though down 2.2% on the previous year).

Figure 2: Area of winter and spring planting of cereals, 2025 and five-year average (2020-2024). Note some data for 2022 were estimated based on administrative data and results in adjacent years.