Dutch Crop tour Weather
Excessive precipitation leads to problems in the country
The heavy and persistent rainfall last week has led to quite a few problems in the country. It puts the brakes on the potato harvest. Several growers in the Netherlands also see water damage on their plots.
It had been a while since it rained all day, but last Friday it happened again. Up to 40 millimeters fell across the country. Together with the precipitation that had already fallen in October, this led to water damage in some cases. Last weekend a shovel and sometimes even a tap had to be used to collect the abundant water from the land. The remaining potato area that still needs to be harvested could be quite a job. Recently sown plots of grain also suffer from water and the consequences of waterlogging.
With the exception of the province of Limburg, the average monthly sum in October in the Netherlands is already around 100 millimeters. The north and south-west of our country received the most millimeters on average. The differences per region are also large. Since the beginning of October, 160 millimeters have fallen at potato grower Daan Tap in Elst (Gelderland). In Eenrum, Groningen, 115 millimeters have so far fallen on the onion plot that participates in the Crop Tour. Both plots are already behind the planks.
Soil completely saturated
Just like with the Crop Tour, the majority of the onions come from the field, but there is still a fair percentage of potatoes in the ground nationally. In Eethen (North Brabant), potato grower Jacob Branderhorst hopes to be able to harvest his plot with Innovator on Monday, even though it is very wet. It remains to be seen whether this will succeed given the abundant rainfall. The potatoes only went into the ground in June and could hardly be harvested earlier, given the quality. Also some other potato growers in the Netherlands Dutch Crop tour say that they still have to clear part of their acreage and that the recent rainfall has resulted in water damage. At the beginning of October things seemed very different. The soil could still take some use at that time and some water was also good for better harvesting conditions. The soil is now completely saturated, according to two growers.
The weather forecast is not exactly positive for the remaining potato harvest. Serious precipitation is expected again in the coming days and the wet weather seems to continue afterwards. This can make the final stages of the potato harvest quite a job. Even before the rainfall last weekend, there were already local problems in the country. It was with the onion growers of the Crop Tour steal between showers continue loading onions. There was already a heavy downpour in Wezup in Drenthe, causing the pace of onion loading to stagnate.
Jesse Torringa
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