Black Sea Crop Tour update

The first Black Sea Crop Tour of 2016 season is now finished.

Over the course of the last ten days we travelled 3,100km through Russia and Ukraine; crossed 16 Oblasts; made 584 crop observations and 64 detailed crop assessments; posted 172 Tweets on the dedicated crop tour Twitter account (@BSCT_01) including 80 photographs and 39 video reports; interviewed four farmers; slept in nine different locations including a train and a boat; consumed an estimated 4.5 litres of borscht and were stopped only twice.

All in all a successful trip.

The data we collected has now been presented and is available in two reports, one for Russia and one for Ukraine, which include detail on our route, methodology, what we found and my opinion on the condition of the winter wheat crop and the potential as it moves into the spring.

Drop me a line for subscription details if you would like a copy of either report or for future tour information planned for the rest of this season.

After a brief period of recovery we set out again in May/June to look at the post-emergence condition of spring planted corn, sunflower and soya with particular focus on limitations to crop development from dryness or cold (or indeed even heat).

After that we will head out again to look at the pre-harvest yield estimations of all crops in July and August.

Feel free to drop me a line via the “Contact me here…” box to the right of this page if you have any questions.

Thanks for all the continued support.

Latest USDA weather update for western FSU

Warmer, wetter weather expanded over the region following a brief cold snap at the end of March.

A warm, southerly flow prevailed for much of the week, with temperatures averaging 2 to 6°C above normal from Belarus and western Ukraine into central Russia.

The return of warmer weather allowed winter grains to resume adding vegetative growth, particularly from southern Ukraine into Russia’s Southern and North Caucasus Districts.

In addition, widespread light to moderate rain (2-35 mm) in these southern areas sustained good to excellent soil moisture for crop growth, though winter wheat areas in central and southern Ukraine continued to exhibit poor vegetation health (as depicted in satellite imagery) due to a severe autumn drought.

Meanwhile, rain and late-week snow (10-50 mm liquid equivalent) sustained abundant moisture reserves for spring growth from Belarus into Russia’s Volga District.

At week’s end, a cold front ushered cooler weather back into the region, though there were no concerns for a damaging hard freeze.