UK farmers may not have bucked the European trend of lower rapeseed sowings quite as significantly as had been thought, saving some ground to raise wheat seedings too.

Origin Enterprises, the owner of the Masstock agronomy chain, flagged a 5% rise in UK sowings of winter rapeseed, putting the country on course for record plantings of the oilseed, whose prices have proved relatively resilient, held up by demand from European Union biodiesel plants.

However, it is less significant than the 8% rise identified by the Andersons Centre, in research distributed by the UK's HGCA crop bureau two weeks ago.

The level of UK rapeseed sowings has raised some concerns over best practice in rotations not being following, threatening the encouragement of pests, and at least signalling greater pesticide use.

Origin sees UK farmers raising wheat seedings too, by 2%, enough to take area above 2.0m hectares, compared with forecast of a marginal decline by the Andersons Centre, which claims its research is "impressively accurate".

Fertilizer delays 

The "good" autumn sowing conditions "supported favourable demand for full service agronomy and technical seed applications", Origin said, adding that the rise in autumn sowings of the UK's major winter crops had provided "an excellent platform" for results for the financial year to next July.

Sales of inputs had also "had a good start to the year albeit on lower volumes", as farmers, while proving willing to splash out on seed, delayed spending on fertilizer and agrichemicals "until closer to the main usage period in the second half of the financial year".

"The current favourable planning environment for primary food producers is expected to support a positive backdrop to agri-services trading in 2012," said the Irish-based group, which also owns the Dalgety agronomy chain in Poland.

Market reaction

In the three months to October 29, the first quarter of the group's financial year, Origin's agriculture division – now essentially the group's only operating business - raised revenues by an underlying 10.6% to E306.0m, helped by the "robust" UK farm activity.

The company's food operations, placed into the Valeo Foods joint venture a year ago, "performed in line with expectations".

Origin added that it was "comfortable with consensus market estimates for the full year", and that the integration of acquisitions including the Carr's fertilizer business were "progressing to plan".

The statement prompted NCB analyst Darren Greenfield to maintain an "accumulate" rating on the group's shares, with a price target of E4.40.

At Davy Research, John O'Reilly restated an "outperform" rating on the shares, which he said offer "outstanding value".

"Management has done a great job in re-strategising the business over recent years," he said.

Origin shares closed 3.7% higher at E3.20 in Dublin, on a weak day for most stocks.