Heavy rains have disrupted the sowing of winter wheat in France and may lead to some loss in planned area, but conditions have been generally favourable in Germany and plantings are up sharply in Britain. Wheat sowing in France, the European Union's top grower, got off to a swift start in October but data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed that by last week progress had slipped behind the pace a year ago.
Wet weather was hindering attempts to drill wheat and also slowing harvesting of maize, sugar beet and sunseed, thereby holding up plans by some farmers to follow up with wheat.
"We are going to see more late sowing than usual and also some unfulfilled sowings which will be transferred to spring crops," Philippe Gate, scientific director at French crop institute Arvalis, said.
The very damp conditions could also hurt winter cereal plants, particularly barley, that had already reached the tillering stage, he added. Tillering occurs when a plant puts out shoots on its stem.
As of Nov. 11, farmers had sown soft wheat on 84 percent of the planned area, up from 81 percent the previous week and below the year-earlier level of 85 percent, FranceAgriMer estimates.
Development of already-sown wheat crops, however, continued to run ahead of last year's pace, with 74 percent of crop emerged against 51 percent a year ago, and 18 percent at the tillering stage versus 4 percent.
Private analyst Strategie Grains estimated last week that the soft wheat area in France for the 2014 crop at 5.02 million hectares, up 1 percent on this year's harvest, but cautioned that it could revise down its estimate due to the rainfall.
The farm ministry will issue a first official sowing estimate in early December.
France is forecast to see scattered showers this week and also snowfall in eastern regions as temperatures drop to zero in parts of the country.
In Germany, the EU's second largest wheat producer, wheat sowings have been completed and a slight increase in planted area is possible, analysts said.
"Autumn sowing weather was very positive and I think most farmers were able to sow all the wheat they intended to," one German analyst said. "Plants are sprouting well and at this stage of the game things are looking good."
German wheat must still go through the country's often very cold winter.
A stable or slight increase in wheat planted area is expected as German farmers are estimated to have cut rapeseed sowings by 4 percent for the 2014 crop.
"There is likely to be a drift away from rapeseed but also strong competition from maize," another analyst said. "I expect a rise in a single digit percentage or a stable wheat planted area."
Germany harvested 3.1 million hectares of wheat in summer 2013, up from 3.0 million hectares in 2012.
Rains have stalled winter wheat planting in Britain but area is still likely to be up sharply on last season with around 90 percent of planned area already planted.