'Heavy rainfall, especially in the northeast of the Netherlands'

Strong thunderstorms passed over the Netherlands last Friday, May 5. Most precipitation fell mainly in the northeast of our country. Precipitation varies greatly regionally. In some places, the land work has come to a complete standstill due to the precipitation on Friday and last weekend. Growers are busy in other places.

Last Friday, a storm front crossed the country. This led to extreme situations, especially in the northeast of the Netherlands. Most regions fared well. In some regions, the precipitation caused flooding. 

Most of the participants in the Boerenbusiness Crop tour came off well with the number of millimeters. Most precipitation fell in the northeast of the Netherlands. The regional differences were in some places more extreme than the precipitation map (above) shows.

Onion grower Arjen Jakobs from Wezup had 33 millimeters within fifteen minutes last Friday. This immediately caused flooding on the plots. "Fortunately, the water had almost all disappeared in the evening," says Jakobs. The onion plots sown first already have the first pipe. The onions are now flagged on the Gewastour plot. Jakobs' weather pole has measured 300 millimeters so far this season.

At René Haaijer in Veelerveen (Groningen), the precipitation per plot has been very variable. The most that fell on a field was 39 millimeters, with an average of 20 millimeters. "Most of the onions are jammed and the last ones are just coming through. I still have to formally sow a few plots of onions, then I'll have all the contracting plots. But I don't know if those plots will still be sown, maybe there will be corn in." 

Jacky Dieleman from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen has planted and sown all his crops. Dieleman is very happy with this. "I'm doing a tour of my crops now and the growth is going well. The onions on both my plots are already coming up. The primed onions are a bit further than the regular seed, but I expected the differences to be bigger."

Growing weather
Due to the temperature and moisture, growth is good. Reinder Hogenhout had sown his Gewastour plot on Thursday afternoon. After two days, there was already a seed on the plot in the Frisian Kimswerd. Reinder Hogenhout said "I've never seen onions germinate so quickly." It can be seen and heard from various growers that the weather is very fertile at the moment, which means that the crops are developing rapidly at the moment.

Potatoes planted
Several growers of the Gewastour potatoes planted Innovator at the end of last week. Gybert Doggen is in Wouw in Brabant and Ruud Steinbusch has also planted his potatoes in the south of the country in Limburgse Voerendaal. Daan Tap in Elst planned to plant his Gewastour plot of potatoes last Friday, but it started to rain. "I planted another plot last Tuesday. Then I thought it was too wet to plant my Gewastour plot, which was scheduled for Friday. It started to rain earlier." In the end it rained 20 millimeters, says Tap. "More than half of the potatoes have already been planted around here. I'm on heavy river clay here, so before I can plant I have to be patient again."

Planting potatoes Gybert Doggen from Wouw

Potatoes are planted by Steinbusch from Voerendaal

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.