!!!Getreide

Cereals, any of various grass plants that yield edible grain. Rye, 
wheat, barley, oats and corn are cultivated in Austria and used in 
food production and as animal feed, the stalks are used as animal feed 
and litter.

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Wheat (Emmer), barley and rye have been cultivated since the Neolithic 
period. In the Middle Ages, cultivation increased due to improvements 
in the plough and scythe, and crops were rotated in a three-field 
system (summer grain, winter grain, fallow). Granaries were built in 
towns to prevent famines caused by grain shortage. Since the 
19%%sup th/%  century, artificial fertilisers, improved strains of 
cereals and mechanical agricultural tools have led to better yields, 
which counteracted poor harvests and thus helped prevent famines. 
Since the 1950s wheat production has increased at the expense of rye. 
Since about 1960, the cultivation of corn has also been on the 
increase.

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In 1994, 240,900 hectares wheat (triticum aestivum), 73,700 hectares 
rye (secale cereale) 265,300 hectares barley (hordeum vulgare), 52,700 
hectares oats (avena sativa) 8,000 hectares mixed feed (wheat and rye) 
and spelt (triticum aestivum var. spelta) were cultivated, mainly for 
human food and animal feed. Cereal is grown on 45% of arable land in 
Austria. 23% of the cereal grains are used in bread production. 
Excessive cultivation of cereals has led to overproduction, which 
today can be reduced by encouraging farmers to grow alternative crops 
such as protein or oil-containing plants (legume, sunflowers, rape, 
etc.). In 1993, overall cereal production amounted to 2.44 million 
tons, which means that Austria produced 8 % more grain than it used 
(and 28 % more than needed for bread production). Per capita and year 
the Austrians consume 49.1 kg of wheat flour and 12.6 kg of rye flour. 
Yields range from 3.5 t and 5 t per hectare. Soft grain wheat is grown 
for the production of bread and animal feed, durum wheat for the 
production of semolina and noodles. Barley with tightly packed rows of 
grain is cultivated for stock feed and barley with two rows of grain 
is made into malt and used in beer production.


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