Dry and hot weather accelerates harvesting in Ukraine and Russia

The dry and hot weather prevailing in Ukraine and Russia accelerates grain harvesting and improves Wheat Quality. But a heat wave of 37-40 degrees in southern Russia can reduce humidity and grain yield.

In Ukraine, the yield of grain crops is better than last year, when a record harvest was collected, but the rate of harvesting is still lower. As of July 15, 2019, 17.4 million tons of grain were harvested from 52% of the area or 5.1 million hectares with a yield of 3.41 t/ha.

As of July 15, 2021, 5.5 million tons of grain and leguminous crops with a yield of 4.16 t/ha were threshed in Ukraine from 1.3 million hectares or 9% of the area, namely:

• winter barley – 2.9 million tons from 28% of the area or 685 thousand hectares with a yield of 4.29 t/ha (3.24 t/ha in 2019),
• winter wheat-2.5 million tons from 9% of the area or 611 thousand hectares with a yield of 4.11 t/ha (3.59 t/ha in 2019),
•  peas – 73.8 thousand tons from 14% of the area or 32.4 thousand hectares with a yield of 2.28 t/ha (2.23 t/ha in 2019).

Preliminary yield estimates are based on data from the southern regions, where weather conditions were not very favorable. However, in the farms of Vinnytsia, Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Ternopil and Khmelnitsky regions, the yield of grain crops exceeds 5 t/ha, which allows us to hope for a record grain harvest in 2021.

In Russia, as of July 16, 20 million tons of grain were threshed from 5.8 million hectares with a yield of 3.44 t/ha (3.28 t/ha last year), in particular:

• wheat – 15.1 million tons from 4.4 million hectares with a yield of 3.46 t/ha (3.38 t/ha last year),
• barley-3.1 million tons from 0.8 million hectares with a yield of 3.84 t/ha (3.2 t/ha in 2020),
• rapeseed – 114.7 thousand tons from 45.8 thousand hectares with a yield of 2.51 t/ha (1.87 t/ha in 2020).

According to the state agency FranceAgriMer, as of July 12, soft wheat was harvested in France only on 4% of the area compared to 42% on this date last year, hard wheat – by 40% (75% last year), winter barley – by 44% (86% last year), spring barley – by 4% (19% last year).

At the same time, 76% of soft wheat crops (55% last year), 66% of durum wheat crops (62% last year), 73% of winter barley crops (49% last year), 83% of spring barley crops (51% last year) and 89% of corn grain crops (82% last year) are in good or excellent condition.