Reenberg, Anette: Agricultural land-use in Denmark in the
1980s. Geografisk Tidsskrift 88: 8-13. Copenhagen, 1988.

The regional agricultural land-use pattern on community level is shown for selected Danish crops. It appears that even within the four years from 1981 Danish agriculture has experienced a substantial development towards a more intensive use of winter crops and crops rich in protein. This implies also some regional change in the relative importance of the major crops, where f.i. barley has lost its former total dominant position in Jutland.

Keywords: Denmark, Agriculture, Regional pattern, Land-use.

Anette Reenberg, associate professor, Institute of Geography,
University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade l O, DK-1350 Copenhagen

Since the mid 1950s Danish agriculture has gradually developed in the direction of specialization and decreasing diversity as described in detail in Jensen (1984). At the beginning of the 1980s the status was that of a highly mechanized agriculture with an outstanding specialization in production structure. The animal husbandry has been concentrated on fewer units with either cattle or pigs while the former dominance of mixed farming is dwindling. In plant production specialization is almost at its peak evaluated at a national level. Cereals, and especially spring barley, constitute a substantial part of the crop pattern as it appears from table 1. The largest percentage was reached in 1979, when spring barley covered 55 % of the total agricultural area in Denmark.

Main regional structures

However, national tendencies do not reveal some very important regional differences in the agricultural productionstructure. Most of the regional patterns in Danish agriculture can be related to the natural environment. Especially the marked difference between the young morainesin the eastern part of the country and the outwash plains in West-Jutland is mirrored in the production structure, but also other and more detailed characteristics of the natural environment have influenced the local productionstrategies (for a more comprehensive discussion of this matter see Jensen and Reenberg (1986) which gives a throughout presentation of the regional production patternon municipality level for the years 1971 and 1981). The economic conditions in Danish agriculture are rather similar, however, for the different parts of the country, and therefore influence less the overall regional structure.

Outstanding exceptions are crops as sugar-beets and potatoes,where
the location of factories is an important
factor influencing the land-use pattern.

Regional crop structures

In the maps figures 1 to 9 are demonstrated the relative
importance and the regional variations for some of the

important crops in 1985, supplemented by a few maps from 1981 to be used in the later discussion on some of the recent development trends. (All maps and diagrams are based on data from the agricultural statistics collected by Danmarks Statistik). As already mentioned barley (figures 1 and 2) still has a prominent position in Danish agriculture, covering 39 % of the agricultural area and more than 2/₃ of the area with cereals. Barley yields best on loamy soils, and before the fast increase in the barley acreage in the 1950s this crop was mainly grown on the morainic soils in eastern Denmark. However, fertilizers and irrigation help to make the sandy soils more suitable, although with a lower yield, and today the regional pattern has completely changed. The main barley growing regions are now found on the poorer soils in Jutland, leaving the more fertile soils on the Islands to f.e. wheat and rape.

Within the last few years, wheat has obtained a more important position and covered more than V₅ of the cereal acreage and 12 % of the agricultural land in 1985. This is due to the increasing interest in winter crops in general, and to some extent to the fact that wheat is replacing barley as pig feed and that wheat yields are comparatively high. Wheat (figures 3 and 4) is principally grown on good soils as found in the eastern part of the country, where also relatively mild summers favour wheat cultivation. The maximum wheat percentage (above 30 % of the cereal acreage) is found on the islands south of Zealand (where the wheat is grown in rotation with sugar beets), on Funen and in some parts of East-Jutland. Local maxima are

located on the relative fertile soils on Sailing and in the
Skjerna-valley.

Field pea is a new crop in Danish agriculture. As appears from table 1 the pulses were of very limited importance up till the beginning of the 1980s - the slightly higher figure in 1970 mirrors a few-year period when horsebean cultivation was subsidized.

In 1978 EEC market schemes favoured crops rich in protein, which by 1985 increased the area under peas to 123,000 ha or more than 4 % of the agricultural area. The main part of the production is used for feed. Introducing peas in the crop rotation gives advantages as f.e. diminishing spread of diseases, nitrogen fixation and a decrease in the over-production of cereals.

Peas (figure 5) are not very sensitive to soil quality, which is reflected in the regional distribution. The highest percentages are found on the sandy soils in Jutland, where the comparative advantage of growing peas is the largest. The acreage is not expected to grow much beyond the present level, as pea yields are very sensitive to climate, and the risk consequently much greater than for cereals.

Sugar beets for sugar production are mainly grown on the fertile moraine soils, but exactly where has moreover been determined by the location of sugar factories because of the high transportation costs involved. The main sugar producing areas are found on the islands south of Zealand (figure 6). In this part of the country approximately tely30 % of the agricultural area is cultivated with sugar beets, which is considered the maximum limit, if spread of diseases should be avoided.

The great importance of the distance factor can especially be studied in Western Zealand, where the acreage with sugar beet creates concentric zones around the factory located in Gørlev (close to the coast). The sugar factory in Assens (on Funen) has also a significant influence on the local land-use pattern.

Other root crops - mainly fodder sugar beet - are still covering 8 % (1985) of the agricultural land, but the acreage is decreasing partly because of the declining cattle stock and partly because root crops are gradually replaced by more labour extensive fodder crops as grass and maize.

The regional pattern of fodder sugar beets production
(figure 7) should be seen in connection with that of grass
outside rotation (figure 8) and cattle (figure 9).

Permanent grass is still of some importance in the Limfjord area with its littoral meadows, in Southwest-Jutland, and also in the central parts of Jutland, where poor soils and the many slopes favour grass, where these areas are not afforested. The existence of areas which can be used for grazing only might be part of the background for the present regional distribution of cattle.

From a more equal national distribution the cattle have
"moved west" during the last half century. In the western
part of Jutland the number of cattle has been increasing

up till 1980 so there is now a significant concentration of
cattle in this part of the country.

Development in the 1980s

Most of the changes in the regional production pattern in Danish agriculture in this decade can be considered a continuation of the specialization process briefly described above. However, some marked changes can be observed. The increasing awareness of the serious ecological drawbacks of spring crops, especially barley, has resulted in a rapid change towards winter crops. This means that a smaller part of the soil surface is left uncovered for a large part of the year and thereby exposed to wind erosion and leaching of nutrient ions. The relative importance of winter and spring crops is shown in figure 10. In 1985 32 % of the cereals were winter crops, winter wheat being the most important (21 %), rye number two (7 %) and winter barley the least important (4 %). In the early 1980s winter barley experienced a remarkable increase after the restrictions on cultivation due to diseases were almost abolished in 1982. As indicated in the figure the peak for winter barley was reached in 1984. Severe problems caused by winter frost in 1984/85 and again in 1985/86 have reduced the farmers' interest in this crop. Detailed reportings on the damages reveal that barley is much more sensitive to frost than wheat. The average national figures for 1984/85 show that 9 % of the wheat

fields had to be resown, against 75 % for winter barley. It
should be added, that the regional differences are substantial,
and that the greatest need for resowing is in Jutland.

Looking at the development in the first 5 years of the 1980s it is also worthwhile to stress that barley has lost its total predominant position in the crop pattern. In the major part of Jutland more than 90 % of the area with cereals were barley fields in 1981. Only four years later this figure has decreased to below 85 % (leaving no community in the 85-90 % class) in 1985. The country average change from 55 % to 39 % of the agricultural area has left considerable space for other crops. Comparing the regional pattern of barley in 1981 and 1985 (figures 1 and 2) with the regional pattern of wheat in the same years reveals that wheat is replacing barley even on the less fertile soils in Jutland. The relative increase of wheat is much larger in the counties in that part of the country as it appears in figure 11.

Peas have already been mentioned as a new and relative important element in the Danish crop pattern. Another crop of a fast increasing importance is industrial seed (mainly spring rape). The development in acreage appears from table 1 and figure 11, showing that the area has almost doubled in five years, now covering approximately 8 % of the total agricultural area. As for wheat the regional development trend is pointing towards a more equal regionaldistribution.

gionaldistribution.From being closely connected to the more fertile soils in the eastern part of the country, rape is becoming more common also on the sandy soils (the lowestpercentage of the agricultural land is found in West- Jutland, where it amounts to only about 4 % on a county level).

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Based on these few considerations on the development in the last few years and the present status of the regional production pattern in Danish agriculture it can be summarized:

- that the keywords to characterize the development are
specialization and decreasing diversification,

- but in this decade there are also obvious trends towards a more complex crop pattern with emphasis on winter cereals and on fodder crops rich in protein, trends which have to be seen as an essential element of a strategy containing also ecological considerations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The data used for the maps presented in this article have been financed by the Agricultural Science Research Council of Denmark. Stud.scient. Lasse Møller Jensen has kindly assisted with the computer based mapping, Jørgen Ulrich and John Jønsson have made the drawings and Kirsten Winther has improved the English language.

References

Danmarks Statistik: Landbrugsstatistik, var. years.

Jensen, Kr. M. (1984): Changes in diversity within Danish agriculture.
Geogr. Tidsskr.

Jensen, Kr. M. and A. Reenberg (eds.) (1986): Landbrugsatlas
Danmark. Atlas over Danmark ser. 11. bd. 4. Reitzel.

Skriver, K. (ed.) (1987): Oversigt over landsforsøgene, Beretning
om Planteavlsarbejdet 1986. Aarhus.