Dutch Crop tour weather - week 22
Is there still a shortage of precipitation?
After a lot of diesel guzzling and sleepless nights, the reels were able to leave the country again in mid-May. In a short period of time, a considerable number of millimeters sometimes fell, often between 20 and 55 millimeters. But is that too much, are the arable farmers satisfied or is the reel running on the fields again. We are polling the participants in the Boerenbusiness Crop tour.
The crops were able to make good use of the precipitation, so that potato and onion growers could drive the reel back into the shed. However, the precipitation was quite distributed. Most millimeters fell in the north and center of the Netherlands. There was too little in the southeast, but also in Zeeland, growers report. For that reason, the reel is again next to the plot in those regions.
According to his weather station, Daan Jansen from Escharen (NB) has only had 18 millimeters of precipitation in the past 14 days. He indicates that the precipitation was very variable on his plots. That is why the reels are already turning on the plots where they are needed.
René Mesken from Appelscha (Fr) has had about 30 millimeters of precipitation, but sees no need to provide his potatoes with more water in the near future. Other potato growers are also not thinking about irrigating yet. That may change as the temperature increases. However, a heat wave is not in the offing for the time being.
The temperature increased considerably in May and averaged 14.0 degrees. That is almost 3 degrees warmer than May 2021 and also higher than the long-term average. This shows - just like in March and April - that the spring started earlier.
| Temperature in C° | Intermediate | 2021 | 2022 |
| February | 3,9 | 4,3 | 6,8 |
| March | 6,5 | 6,4 | 7,3 |
| April | 9,9 | 6,7 | 9,3 |
| Mei | 13,4 | 11,2 | 14,0 |
According to the drought monitor of the KNMI can be seen that we are almost proportional to the 5% driest years. Due to recent rainfall, the deficit has decreased, but the precipitation deficit in the Netherlands is still at an average of 107 millimeters. For the time being, the crops have been provided with some moisture and the growing conditions can be called good. If there is no precipitation soon, more reels will soon leave the shed again.
Robin Winter
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