Cold and damp weather lowers grain harvest expectations

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According to a statement issued on Tuesday by Tike, the Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Finland, the country’s field crop yields per hectare will be clearly lower than those of last year.
      Thanks to the removal of the set-aside obligation, around 100,000 more hectares were under grain crops than in the summer of 2007, but nevertheless, the overall grain harvest is likely to fall short of last year’s 4.14 billion kilos.
      Tike forecasts that this year’s grain harvest will be 3.97 billion kilos.
     
The rye harvest is forecast at 60 million kilos or 30 % below last year's volumes, while the total wheat harvest forecast is about 740 million kilos, which is some 7 % less than last year.
     
The harvest per hectare for both oats and barley is forecast to fall short of last year's level, but thanks to increased cultivation area, the total harvest may be almost equal to that of last autumn. The forecast oats harvest is about 1.2 billion kilos and that for barley 1.9 billion kilos.
      The reduction in the area under sugar beet and forecast yields per hectare at a lower level than last year are expected to reduce the sugar beet harvest to about 480 million kilos, amounting to a fall on 2007 figures of nearly 30%.
     
The weather in the current growing season has not been ideal for arable crops.
      According to the ProAgria Association of Rural Advisory Centres, heavy rains have hampered the process of harvesting and threshing in the entire country.
      Moreover, the slow and uneven ripening of crops has delayed the start of threshing in some locations.
      The harvest projections are based on estimates from their own areas supplied by experts at local ProAgria Rural Advisory Centres, reflecting the situation as of 25th August.


Links:
  Tike press release 2.9.2008
  ProAgria

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