The Natural Resources Institute of Finland presents an experimental statistic on regional yield estimates of spring cereals per hectare based on satellite images for 2024: spring wheat, feed barley, malting barley and oats. Compared to the average of the whole country, the yield per hectare for all spring cereals is slightly, i.e. 5-20 per cent, higher than average. The estimates are based on satellite images taken between 1 May and 15 July.
The estimated yield of spring wheat per hectare is 8-42 per cent larger in all regions. About a fourth of all the 170,000 hectare spring wheat cultivation area in Finland is in Southwest Finland, which has a yield estimate that is 37 per cent higher than average. For the whole country, the estimated yield per hectare is 20 per cent higher than average.
With regard to feed barley, the estimated yield per hectare is smaller than average only in Åland. In Southern Ostrobothnia, the estimate is average and in Northern Ostrobothnia it is about 11 per cent higher than average: these two regions contain about a third of the whole, approximately 314,000 hectare feed barley cultivation area of Finland.
The yield estimate of malting barley per hectare is slightly above average in all regions. The yield is 12 per cent larger than average in Uusimaa and 26 per cent larger than average in Southwest Finland. Their proportion of the 58,000 hectare cultivation area of malting barley is more than a third.
For the whole country, the estimated yield per hectare of oats is 14 per cent higher than average. In Southwest Finland, the yield estimate is 22 per cent higher than average and in Southern Ostrobothnia 9 per cent higher than average. Nearly a third of the around 344,000 hectare cultivation area of oats in Finland is located within these regions.
The estimated yields per hectare in the experimental statistics are calculated by region, and they are also presented as percentage comparisons to eight-year average yields per hectare from the region in question. A more detailed method description has been presented in Methodological report (FI).
The information based on the satellite data of the experimental statistic will now be presented in connection with the yield statistics for the first time. The yield statistic will next be published on 16 August. At this time, yield estimates will be published for the following plants: winter wheat, spring wheat, rye, barley, oats, mixed cereals, cereals harvested green, turnip rape and rape, potato, sugar beet, pea, broad bean, dry hay and silage feed. The yield estimates will be based on the estimated yields per hectare by experts of ProAgria, as well as the cultivation areas reported by farmers during the subsidy application procedure. Subscribe to the statistic publication here.
What is an experimental statistic?
Experimental statistics depict new areas of phenomena, utilise new kind of data or are based on new calculation methods. Experimental statistics can include, for example, completely new statistics, tests of the impacts of method changes of existing statistics or achievements of international development work.
Experimental statistics have no official quality or method description or an established publication schedule. This sets them apart from the official Finnish statistics.
Luke publishes regional yield estimates that have been calculated using satellite images and machine learning methods. The results are based on work carried out in a development project funded by Eurostat.
Experimental statistics are still under development. We encourage the people utilising the data to give their feedback on experimental statistics for their further development.
