Cold inhibits growth and is far from gone

Early potatoes, sugar beets and seed onions. Everything is going smoothly this spring. Low temperatures - especially at night - mean that some arable farmers are cautious. The calendar doesn't stop and the ground is good. That is why sowing and planting is done quietly. Even heat-loving crops such as corn are sown.

Not this cold in 100 years
It is often sunny during the day and the sun's strength is high, but partly due to a fresh wind it feels cold. At night the mercury always drops well below zero. In Eelde, Groningen, a cold record was even achieved on April 26. It has not been this cold on the ground in 100 years: -4,5 degrees. The previous record dates from 1950. Records were also broken in other places. In Twente the temperature even dropped to -7,5 degrees.

"For the seventeenth time this month, the temperature fell below freezing at night," says Boerenbusinessweatherman Robert de Vries. "That is really special for April." April hasn't been wet. On average, falls between 30 and 60 millimeters. This year so far it has been 20 to 30 millimeters. The southeast and east received more rain and the north also received locally more precipitation. It is relatively dry in the arable areas. Tulip bulbs are heavily irrigated, as are onions and other young crops. Looking at the current monthly average for April, this month is the coldest in 35 years.

No damage to beets
At the beginning of April, large-scale frost damage occurred to sugar beets in France. In our country the damage is very minor. Last week, Cosun Beet Company (CBC)  know that there is virtually no frost damage. Some vulnerable plants in particular are lost due to the cold weather. According to CBC, the reseeding counter is approximately 100 hectares. It is estimated that almost all beets were sown last week. There was still some doubt, especially in the northeast and east. Growers there fear for the plots that were sown early in March. In combination with dry soil, crops can die there. You also need to be careful with weed control. This is often suspended, which is also possible because the weeds also develop slowly. With the persistently low temperatures, the risk of shooters increases significantly.

Arable farmers in France have already started reseeding en masse. About 60.000 hectares need to be reseeded there. It remains above zero there now, but it is not really warm. Frost damage is also visible in flowering rapeseed and summer grain. It slows down the development of winter wheat and barley. Persistent drought is a bigger problem for arable farmers. On Twitter you can see photos of stressed crops that have not yet reached knee height and are already in the ear.

Grains develop slowly
It is also cold for this time of year in other European countries. In the Black Sea region - where the sowing of spring grains and corn should be in full swing - there are delays and even a lot of snow falls again. That does protect the crops. It is one of the factors that ensures that the grain market in Paris is also trading higher again on Monday, April 26. If the cold weather continues, this will have consequences for the grain harvest in the EU. It is also cold and dry in North America, which gives the grain market impulses to rise.

In Northwestern Europe - and certainly the Netherlands - arable farmers are looking at the consequences of the weather on the 2021 potato harvest. potato futures market tapped the €23 for the April 19,00 contract on Friday afternoon, April 2022. This movement is mainly due to speculation about the acreage and expectations about economic recovery. The effect of the weather is especially visible in the price of the June contract. It closed at €10,40 on Friday and is trading at €11,00 on Monday afternoon. That was very different at the start of the month. At that time the rate was €7,70 per 100 kilos. A difference of 35%.

Planted half
There is certainly no panic. According to the most recent figures from Aviko Potato, 50% of the consumption potato area is in the ground in the Netherlands. That was the position on April 23. Given the weather forecasts, significant progress can be made this week so that almost everything will be planted by early May. That's right on time. If May brings warmer weather, the crops will still develop well. The bottleneck is mainly with the early potatoes. They went into the ground in time, but were already covered in hail, snow and frost. Not really growing weather. The old season of forecast 13 months is thus further stretched.

Planting is slightly more advanced in France and the United Kingdom and less so in Germany and Belgium. In most cases, planting lags behind previous years. Only in 2018 was planting much later. At the beginning of May, a low-pressure area is heading our way, writes DCA Agroweer. This raises the temperature to levels between 16 and 20 degrees. It remains cold at night. The uncertainty for the next 30 days is great, but there are not many signals of persistent warm weather. The cold air has an exceptionally long breath this spring. It will also remain drier than average and sunny.