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German Planting Estimates

The latest planting estimates from the German government's statistics office have been released.  German farmers have sown 3.12Mha of winter wheat for harvesting in 2008, a rise of 6.6% on the previous year.  The high wheat prices, which encouraged growers to plant more land to wheat and the Europeans Union decision to suspend set-aside, meant this increase had been expected by the industry.
The suspension of set-aside and poor weather during the rapeseed planting period has resulted in the area planted of rapeseed decreasing by 8.4% to 1.41Mha.  Much of the set-aside land, previously used for the cultivation of rapeseed for the biodiesel sector, has been switched into the production of wheat.
The area planted to winter barley is slightly down by 0.2% TO 1.42Mha but there has been an increase in spring planting barley by 9.7% to 0.54Mha.  The area planted to Rye is estimated to be up 11.8% to 0.75Mha.