We've recently launched our Harvest Survey 2022. This year's data will be especially important, as we assess the impact of the fertiliser crisis, escalating input costs, market volatility, and difficult weather for some regions.
I’m conscious many of you will have already filled in surveys for the NFU this year, and I thank you for taking the time to do so. Whether it’s been the planting intentions survey, or before that on nitrogen use efficiency, these surveys help to shape and provide evidence for our policy asks and help us to champion British arable farming.
In fact, all these surveys are related, because the harvest survey will provide more detail of the impacts of the many challenges during the past year, how you have adapted to them, and how they have translated into grain in store.
The value of regional input
We’d also really like to have a good number of respondents from across the UK, because that can also tell us a great deal about the variations across the country, especially in terms of the weather. As the harvest began this year we saw record temperatures, which brought their own challenges, but the rainfall deficit had gone on for months before that for many of us. As a result, the better the regional data we have, the more tailored we can be when talking to MPs and officials and the more relevant the case we make to them will be.
Small effort, big gain
This survey will only take a few minutes, and should be undertaken once you have finished harvest to get the most accurate figures possible. Those few minutes will help us build a strong evidence base of how the harvest has gone across Wales and England.
The survey will close on Tuesday 27 September 2022.
Tips for completing the Harvest Survey 2022
Please read this carefully before completing the online questionnaire.
- Please do not fill in your survey unless your harvest is complete.
- If your harvest is not complete by the survey deadline, please give the average yield realised on the area harvested to date.
- Yield estimates should be based on dried samples. If this is not possible, please adjust to give your best estimate of yield on a 14.5% (approx.) moisture content basis for cereals, 9% for oilseeds and 16% for proteins.
- Areas planted – record the same areas as you entered on your June Census return.
- All figures must be in metric units, (tonnes and hectares).
- To convert to hectares, multiply the area in acres by 0.405.