Winter cereal production estimates increase despite late planting
The commercial production of winter cereals for 2016’s past season is now expected to be greater than forecast a month ago, according to data released on Thursday by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ crop estimates committee. Winter wheat production, the committee says, is expected to come in at 1.766-million tonnes, which is an increase of 1.9% — about 32,000 tonnes more than the previous forecast in October. The increase comes despite late seasonal winter rains. These have delayed wheat planting in the Western Cape, which accounts for about 50% of SA’s wheat production, the US agriculture department’s Foreign Agriculture Service said in October in a commodity intelligence update. Winter wheat is planted in May and harvested in November. The report forecast a crop of 1.69-million tonnes, which was 60,000 tonnes lower than 2015’s output of 1.75-million tonnes, or 3.67 tonnes per hectare.
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