Ukraine Crop update

Five years I have been in Ukraine and it always surprises me how quickly crops move through the growth stages, it really shouldn't by now but it does.

I follow crop development in western Europe via the power of the internet and at the beginning of April we seem so far behind anything in France, Germany or the UK.

Then BAM! May arrives and everything catches right up and starts to get a nose in front.

No sooner has oilseed rape woken up from the long winter, rubbed the sleep out of it's eyes and it's in full flower demanding the mid-flower spray.

Wheat goes from GS30 to flag leaf in the blink of an eye, so much so that you miss T1, have to send all the PGR back and are looking at T2 based on what you bought for T1.

Maize and sunflowers are now out of the ground with two leaves showing and will be up around your knees before the month is out, pushing the pre-em sprayer to the limit as a result.

One free piece of advice if your considering farming in Ukraine; when you have carefully written your workplan and diligently calculated how many sprayers you need, buy one more.

New appointment

Look who got himself a new job this week, back in the driving seat and in complete control.

In truth he always was the front runner for the position with years of experience under his black belt and no one else vying for the position it was basically his for the taking.

Kolkhoz Kremlin is happy to see him back and expect output to rise significantly as a result.

To the next great leap forward!

Weather

On the 10th April the average temperature was 2 degrees Celsius, by 30th April it was 22 degrees.

That's an increase of 20 degrees in 20 days; no wonder everything suddenly turned green and started growing.

Recent reports that the hot weather may have affected spring seedling growth have come a little premature as temperatures return to near normal and showers cooled everything off.

Weather update

April finishes with rainfall and temperatures above average and above this time last year.

May has started very warm with daytime temperatures reaching the mid to high twenties.

Occasional showers are continuing to water thirsty crops but not so much as to disrupt spring plantings.

In summary; marvelous weather, the question is how long will it last?

Something is different...

You might have spotted that I have changed the layout of the blog a little bit.

After two years I thought it was time for an upgrade so here is the new revised Agronomy-Ukraine with comments about Russia too.

It's been a busy news week

Ukraine has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons again this week.

Bombs left in litter bins exploded in Dnipropetrovsk.  With only 37 days to go to the start of Euro 2012 authorities were quick point out that because it is fiendishly difficult to pronounce, Dnipropetrovsk was not one of the host cities.

Then there is Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailed opposition leader who has allegedly been beaten up in prison and is reported to be on hunger strike.

As a result five European presidents have said they will avoid a summit meeting in mid May and the EU president along with Angela Merkel are the first to announce they will boycott the football tournament.

I suspect the football will go ahead regardless, probably best to avoid hanging around litter bins though.