The European Union's crop-monitoring service on Monday cut its yield forecast for this year's EU grain maize harvest for a second straight month, after hot, dry weather stressed crops in major producing countries. The MARS service projected the average grain maize yield at 6.40 tonnes per hectare, down from 6.71 t/ha estimated last month. This would be 20.5 percent less than last year's yield and 8.8 percent below the five-year average.
Maize (corn) has been the cereal to suffer most from low rainfall and record temperatures in Europe this summer, as those conditions came in the middle of the crop's growth cycle, while wheat and barley were being harvested. "Large areas of Europe have been negatively impacted by high temperatures and dry conditions, hitting summer crops during their most critical grain-filling stage," MARS said in its monthly report.
It cited southern Spain, Italy, eastern France, southern Germany and Poland as regions further affected by hot weather in late July and early August. Other eastern EU countries such as Hungary and Romania had also experienced high temperatures since mid-August, which impacted maize grain formation, but recent rainfall led to a partial recovery in crop conditions in those countries, it said. Meanwhile, MARS slightly raised its yield estimate for the EU wheat harvest to 5.81 t/ha, from 5.80 t/ha last month. This was now down 5.4 percent from 2014 but 2.5 percent above the five-year mean.
Barley yields, including winter and spring varieties, are now pegged at 4.62 t/ha, up from 4.61 t/ha last month but 5.8 percent below last year. In oilseeds, it raised its estimate for the EU's 2015 rapeseed yield to 3.25 t/ha, against 3.23 t/ha seen last month, now down 10.2 percent on last year but still 3.8 percent above the five-year average. MARS lowered its forecast for this year's sugar beet yield in the 28-country EU to 71.35 t/ha, against 71.91 t/ha seen in July. This was 7.5 percent below the 2014 level but 1.3 percent higher than the five-year average.