To date Russian
farmers have cut 15% or 7.1mha of the early crop harvest.This has produced 24.9mmt of grain with an average yield of 3.51mt/ha (3.01mt/ha 2013).
Not that
it really means anything because each season is earlier or later but at the same
point last year they had cut 9.0mha so some would have you believe the harvest
is behind.
Not me
though, I believe plants kept growing longer and matured later because
soil moisture allowed them to do so, thus harvest started later but will
undoubtedly catch up under hot dry conditions; a hypothesis borne out by higher
yields this year compared to last (except the rape, rape is always a dog at harvest,
one sniff of heavy rain and it’s on the floor).
In detail
then, the scores on the doors are wheat 3.61mt/ha (3.17mt/ha 2013); barley
3.36mt/ha (2.67mt/ha 2013); oilseed rape 1.61mt/ha (1.72mt/ha 2013).