The harvest of wheat, barley and rapeseed is disappointing this year in Germany. That is what Der Deutschen Bauenverband (DBV) predicts. According to them, the 2022 harvest is more than 7% below the multi-year average and 3% below that of last year. Heat and drought have been the culprits.
Friday 24 June organized Der Deutschen Bauernverband held a press conference in the middle of a field of winter barley in Brandenburg, which was being harvested at that time. The message from chairman (and arable farmer) Joachim Ruckwied was clear: the grain harvest this year is below average due to a combination of heat and drought in the spring and early summer. In many parts of Germany it is very dry.
Yield level drops
DBV assumes 41,2 million tons of grain this year. That is 1,1 million tonnes less than a year ago and 7,3% less than the multi-year average of 44,2 million tonnes. This makes it the smallest harvest since 2018, when the yield was extremely low. Ruckwied was negative during the press conference. "As a result of the war in Ukraine, raw materials are expensive and scarce. As a result, German farmers will probably not be able to maintain the current yield level in the coming years."
The chairman also sees a bottleneck in the availability of gas. Germany fears that Russia will turn off the gas tap shuts down and that can have disastrous consequences for agriculture. "For example, for the production of nitrogen fertilizer," says Ruckwied. "The agricultural sector must therefore be given priority in gas deliveries."
More acreage, less wheat
A larger area of cereals in the country - the largest cereal producer in the EU after France - has not provided green figures. DBV puts the wheat yield at 20,63 million tons, compared to 21,38 million tons in 2021. This while the acreage of spring wheat has increased by three quarters. That of winter wheat remained the same. German farmers have clearly changed their plans this spring. The acreage of summer barley has grown by a fifth and other spring crops have also increased in surface area, such as grain maize. This is at the expense of oats and rye, for example.
The sowing of winter grains went well last autumn on the German plots. Thanks to a mild winter, the grains survived these months well. However, the spring was dry and it stayed that way. A combination of little precipitation and low temperatures was less positive for the spring crops. Significant precipitation fell in many places in the country in June. It comes too late for winter cereals, but not for spring crops. Sugar beets, maize and potatoes can benefit from it.
Rapeseed more popular again
Rapeseed cultivation has increased in popularity by 1,075 million hectares. This is still below the multi-year average. The yield is estimated at 3,72 million tons, which is 260.000 tons more than in 2021. DBV thinks that more rapeseed will also be sown this summer as a result of the high seed and oil prices.