Thursday, 23 June 2016

Russia and Ukraine start harvest

Winter wheat harvest has started in southern Russia and Crimea with early yields coming off at an average of 4.9mt/ha which compares with 4.5mt/ha in 2015. 

My contacts are telling me they are quietly confident of good crops this year although some combine drivers have been reporting of lower yields further east.

It’s very early days so I wouldn’t read too much into figures at this stage but it’s worth noting that commentators are just now starting to pick up on possible problems with Black Sea winter crops such as lodging, excessive number of weeds, low protein and high fungal disease levels.

This is something we first highlighted about three weeks ago during our crop tour, another example of why it might be worth signing up to our timely service.

Bloomberg report Russia is preparing to harvest more barley than last year with as much as 18.5mmt, mostly used as feed, after a warm winter followed by spring rains.  That’s if it doesn’t all fall over first.