News Harvest 2018
What Does Extremely Early Barley Harvest Predict?
The winter barley harvest has started extremely early in Northwestern Europe. The fact that the barley ripens so early is not out of luxury. This means that the crop has an interesting predictive value for the upcoming wheat harvest.
Last year reported the southern arable cooperative CZAV to have set a record. On Wednesday 20 June they received the first winter barley. This year, the southwest of the country is a little later, but the first combines were spotted in Flevoland and North Brabant on 19 June. That may be a record. In 2014, the harvest started on 24 June in the youngest province.
Dutch record?
The barley harvested in mid-June is intended as animal feed. A slightly higher moisture percentage is therefore no problem. Winter barley has also been threshed on the sandy soil in the south of the Netherlands. Reports are also coming from Flanders that winter barley has been harvested there for animal feed.
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Germany extremely early
In various parts of Germany, winter barley was also threshed this week. Most of the time it concerns emergency plots. agraheute speaks of the earliest grain harvest in 60 years. Combines have started in Thuringia, Brandenburg, Saxony, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Depending on the state, the grain harvest will start about 2 to 3 weeks earlier.
The harvest also started early across the border with Poland. It has been very dry since April. Besides barley, the other grains and rapeseed are also extremely early this year. The yields are very heterogeneous and range from 3,5 to 8,5 tons per hectare.
The countries experiencing drought are all reporting lower yields. The quality, on the other hand, is mostly good. As a rule, dry years deliver good quality. The winter barley harvest in the European Union (EU) is estimated to be 2% lower; mainly due to a much smaller German harvest, which is almost 7% lower according to current estimates. The most recent estimates are 8,42 million tons, which can be reduced to 8,2 million tons.
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These 4 combines harvest barley in Thuringia on June 19. Photo: Agrifoto.nl.
More summer barley
A lower yield of winter barley is largely compensated by a sharply increased area of spring barley. The total winter barley harvest in the EU this year will go from 30,4 to 29,9 million tons. For spring barley this is 32,6 million tons, where 2017 million tons were harvested in 28. Spain and France are positive exceptions to the rule. The harvest also started early there, but the yields are average to good.
Farmer wisdom teaches that barley has a predictive value for the further course of the harvest. However, the wheat is still in the field for 3 to 4 weeks and a lower yield is not expected in the Netherlands. For some German areas, this is now clear as a matter of course. In Lower Saxony, for example, rye, wheat and spring barley are also affected by drought. Arable farmers expect the worst grain harvest in 20 years here.
The rain showers and heavy thunderstorms with storms are currently throwing a spanner in the works for the European grain harvest. Including in Germany and Poland. A violent thunderstorm damaged 21 buildings there on Thursday 300 June.
Scandinavia
The situation in Scandinavia is also special. Denmark and Sweden are dealing with extreme drought. Denmark has not been this dry in 125 years. The 2 countries are normally net exporters of grain. This year, the opposite may be true. Finland and the Baltic States have also had their warmest May on record. June was milder, but also dry.
Barley harvest at Hedro Farms in southwestern Poland. Yield between 5 and 7 tons per hectare.
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Niels van der Boom
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