Rain continued, further easing drought in
Ukraine and Russia’s Central District while maintaining favourable winter wheat
prospects in southern Russia.
In the region’s hardest-hit autumn drought
areas (central and eastern Ukraine into Russia’s Central District), 7-day
rainfall totalled 10 to 60 mm.
While not enough to eradicate the lingering
90-day rainfall deficits, the precipitation provided additional much-needed moisture
for late winter wheat establishment in the still vegetative southern growing
areas.
Despite the warmer-than normal conditions,
weekly average temperatures remained below 5°C from northeastern Ukraine into
the Central District, indicating the rain was too late to aid winter wheat
establishment in these more northerly crop areas.
Meanwhile, winter wheat in southern Russia
benefited from another timely soaking, with 10 to 40 mm reported over many of
the major wheat oblasts in Russia’s Southern and North Caucasus Districts.
In the Krasnodar Oblast in the southwestern
corner of Russia’s Southern District (a key wheat producer), most stations have
received 105 to nearly 140 mm of rainfall since October 10, supporting good
prospects for winter wheat establishment.