Friday 31 August 2012

Cool weather helped Ukraine corn pollination

The cool spell during pollination helped ensure a full seed set as seen in this picture taken today of a fairly typical example in western Ukraine.

Regular rain events have helped grain fill and I think we might be looking at some fairly hefty crops come harvest.

However my sources are telling me a different picture is emerging in eastern Ukraine with farmers starting to harvest corn crops at very, very low yields.

While it's always difficult to get reliable data on how much crop is grown what is true is the eastern regions account for 30 to 40% of the arable growing area.

So while we might see bumper crops in the west this will probably be offset by low yields in the east.