The German agriculture minister Julia Klöckner released the harvest report for grain harvest 28 on Friday 2020 August. This shows, among other things, that the yield is approximately 3% below the level of last year. Klöcker also reports that the national average yields are better than expected in the forecasts.
The 2020 harvest report was presented on Friday morning by Agriculture Minister Klöckner. The yields achieved in various growing areas throughout Germany form the basis of this report (in contrast to... previous harvest forecasts). "The average yields are better than expected, but below average. This is mainly due to the fact that farmers were struggling with drought for the third year and due to the late frost," Klöckner said at the press conference.
According to Klöcker, there is therefore no reason for drought support this year. "The total grain harvest is indeed slightly below the level of last season, but this is largely due to the smaller grain area. In our view, the situation this year is certainly not comparable to the extreme drought in 2018."
Grain harvest just below average
The provisional harvest figure for the German grain harvest is 42,9 million tons, based on the results from 6.973 grain fields. The yield is therefore expected to be 3,1% lower than last year. Compared to the 6-year average, a gap of 6% is visible. According to the German government, the lower figure is largely due to the smaller area: -4,7% compared to 2019. The area of winter wheat in particular has shrunk sharply (-10%).
The decline in winter wheat is caused by the fact that it was too wet in many parts of Germany last autumn to sow winter grain. On the other hand, farmers have significantly expanded the cultivation of roughage (corn, grass, alfalfa), especially in view of the roughage shortage due to drought. The average hectare yield for all grain types together is 69,1 tons, which is 1,3% more than in 2019.
Rapeseed cultivation is recovering
Late last year rapeseed cultivation Germany has seen a significant decline, but a slight recovery is visible this year. The area has grown to 954.200 hectares, although this is still considerably smaller than a few years ago (1 million hectares). The hectare yield varies around 36,8 tons, although the regional differences are large. In total, a rapeseed harvest of 2020 million tons is expected for the 3,5 season, which is 24,4% more than last year. However, compared to the 6-year average, a decrease of 20,7% is visible.
The Deutsche Raiffeisenverband (DRV) is somewhat concerned about the figures. "Even though the quality of the harvest this year is average to good, there are clearly lower protein levels," the organization reports. They wonder whether the levels will decrease further in the future as a result of the tightened manure regulation. This makes it even more difficult for German growers to grow quality wheat. DRV therefore believes that (instead of general bans) emphasis should be placed on the use of technologies (such as N sensors).