Agricultural Prices Down In March And Year

Prices for all outputs rose by 0.6% and the prices of all inputs was unchanged for March 2014. Prices are lower than the same last year. The price for all outputs was 6.9% lower than the same time year. The price for all inputs was 4.5% lower than the same time last year.

Crop prices are down slightly compared with last year. The poor harvest may have been to blame. Some crop prices are significantly down on last year: potatoes down 38%, fresh fruit down 23%, oilseed rape down 22% and cereals down 22%.

Strong demand for top quality fresh fruit led to a price rise of 7.7% in March. Cereals prices increased by 1.2% due to concerns over the future supply of cereals due to the political situation in the Crimea. An increase in global demand for oilseed rape and decrease in supply led to a price rise of 2.3% in March.

Sheep and lamb prices increased by 9.3% in March as supplies decreased pushing up prices. Lower levels of production of mutton and lamb than last year, down 1.8%, resulted in prices 8.7% higher than last year.

On the inputs side, energy and lubricant prices were 2.5% lower in March and 4% lower than last year. Feed prices increased by 0.5% but remain 12% down on last year. Straights rose by 2% due to increased cereal prices while compounds stayed the same.

The price of fertiliser rose by 0.4% in March but is still 8.2% lower than last year. Prices remain steady because most of the spring fertiliser market was already ordered.

Agriculture Sees Fall in API in August

The agricultural prices index published by Defra for all outputs fell by 2.5% in August but remains 0.6% higher than last year. The API for all inputs fell by 0.5% but is still 1% higher than last year.

All of the output price categories fell with the exception of milk. Cereals fell 9.7% and are 13% lower than last year, oilseed rape fell 8% and is 15% down on last year, potatoes are 8.8% lower than last year and vegetable prices are down 5.1% and 6% on last year. Livestock prices are 4% down in August but are still 5% higher than last year. Milk has seen a 2.2% increase in price in August and are 20% higher than last year.

On the input side animal feed has fallen in price by 7.2% reflecting falling prices in cereal and industrial crops. Motor fuel price increases of 2.7% have put them 2.3% up on last year.

Defra Releases December Survey Results

Defra recently released statistics from the December Survey as at 2010 giving details of crops and pigs and population estimates of cattle and sheep.

The wheat cropping area remained stable again last year decreasing by 0.5% to 1.8m hectares. Winter oilseed rape areas increased by 12% to 655,000 hectares and the winter barley area decreased by 8.5% to 310,000 hectares. The area of arable land to be left out of production in 2010-11 increased by 9.3% and is 248,000 hectares. The area may change depending on factors like market conditions and the weather. The amount of hay produced in 2010 was 2m tonnes and the grass silage produced amounted to 20.5m tonnes. Silage from other crops totalled 5m tonnes.

On the livestock side, the total number of cattle and calves decreased by 1% to 5.4m. Pigs decreased in number by 1.7% from 3.6m to 3.5m and there were 415,000 breeding pigs. Sheep and lambs remained stable at 9.9m.

Increase In Agricultural Prices

Defra has released the Agricultural Prices Index series for August 2010. The API all products price index for prices received by producers for agricultural products increased from 137.6 in July to 142.0 in August. Cereals prices increased overall from an index of 144.6 to 176.6 with wheat, barley and oats all going up, industrial crops also increased from 157.9 to 163.8 with potato and oilseed rape prices increasing and sugar beet unchanged. Fresh fruit prices also increased but the prices index for fresh vegetables fell from 124.9 to 116.9. The overall crops products index increased from 138.8 to 146.3 but seed and other crop products remained the same. Calf prices fell but cows and bulls increased and cattle increased helping the animal and animal products index increase slightly from 136.6 to 138.2.

Prices paid by producers for agricultural inputs have also increased slightly from an index of 139.7 in July to 141.7 in August 2010. Seed prices and spray prices stayed the same over the month but fertiliser prices increased slightly from 245.1 in July to 248.6 in August. Energy prices increased slightly from 148.1 to 148.5. The cost of animal feedingstuffs increased from an index of 159.9 in July to 164.6 in August 2010 with significant increases in the prices of feed wheat and feed barley. The prices of goods and services of plant and buildings and veterinary services increased slightly overall. There was a slight increase in the price of machinery and equipment and farm buildings prices were unchanged. The index for all means of agricultural production increased by two points from 139.7 to 141.7.

UK Harvest Data 2009

The NFU recently released data concerning the UK 2009 harvest reporting that production is down on the 5-year average by over a million tonnes. It is estimated that this year's wheat harvest will be around 13.9 million tonnes, 3.4 million tonnes lower than last year. The 5-year average for wheat is 15,106 million tonnes, from 1,921 hectares at 7.9 tonnes/hectare. The decrease is due to both lower sowing and lower yields. Farmers planted less cereals and oilseed rape and planted more lower input crops because of difficult autumn planting conditions, high input prices and declining forward prices. Together with drought affecting cereals in England, cereals output was down by 14%. Winter barley is down 300,000 tonnes to 2.5 million tonnes, spring barley is up 440,000 tonnes on last year to 3.8 million tonnes due to lower yields but a significant increase in sowing for 2009. Oilseed rape sowing decreased compared with 2008, but yields increased to give very similar results to last year.