80% farmland utilised in winter 2015-2016

More than 40 per cent of the utilised agricultural land in the country was covered by crop plants in the winter of 2015-2016, according to the preliminary data of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

Nearly one-fifth of the agricultural land was covered by plant residues or stubble, and one-tenth was conservation tilled. In total, nearly 80 per cent of the total agricultural land was covered by plants or conservation tilled. A little over 20 per cent of the agricultural area was bare.

Ploughing remains clearly the most commonly used primary tillage method. More than half of the cultivated area was ploughed. Two-thirds of the ploughing was carried out in the autumn and one-third in the spring. Conservation tillage accounted for nearly one-third and sowing in untilled soil made up less than one-tenth of the total cultivation area.

Approximately one quarter of all manure spread on fields was solid and three quarters were slurry or other liquid manure. Of all solid manure, approximately 75 per cent were incorporated after spreading. With regard to slurry, more than 40 per cent were injected during spreading, and roughly 13 per cent were spread on the surface using a trailing shoe or a similar spreader. The proportion of band spreading was 15 per cent and that of broadcast spreading was nearly 30 per cent. Nearly two-thirds of all slurry spread by means of band or broadcast spreading was incorporated.

In 2016, approximately 8,000 hectares of the field and horticultural area were irrigated.

The primary data was collected from farmers during the Farm Structure Survey in autumn and winter of 2016–2017.