Soft wheat and winter barley crops in the European Union should see yields fall nearly 5 percent this year, while those of maize could jump by nearly 11 percent after a severe drought last year, the EU's crop monitoring service MARS forecast recently. In its first forecasts for this year's harvest, the unit put the average soft wheat yield in the 28-country bloc at 5.96 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), down 4.8 percent from 6.26 t/ha in 2015.
The average winter barley yield would shed 4.9 percent to 5.82 t/ha, from last year's 6.12 t/ha. The crop monitor noted that at this stage its forecasts for this year's harvest were based on historical trends or average values. Although lower than last year, EU soft wheat and winter barley yields would still be 2.3 and 4.4 percent above the five-year average respectively, data showed.
"Winter crops are generally in good shape and well developed in the EU due to the mild winter conditions. In general, prospects for the new season are promising," the EU's Monitoring Agricultural Resources unit said in its report. As a consequence of the mild temperatures, soft wheat crops were two weeks ahead in France, the EU's largest producer of the grain, MARS said.
It noted some frost damage to winter crops in north-west Poland where temperatures fell well below 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) in January with no snow cover protection. This could lead to a national estimated loss of 10 percent, it said. Maize yields were expected to jump 10.9 percent to 7.12 t/ha this year, against 6.42 t/ha in 2015, when drought and heat stressed maize plants across the bloc. Sowings of the spring crop have not started yet in many large EU producing regions. In oilseeds, rapeseed yields would decrease by 1.4 percent to 3.31 t/ha, while sugar beet yields would rise to 73.98 t/ha, up 9.6 percent from 67.52 t/ha in 2015/16, MARS said.
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