Grain harvest in Schmalkalden-Meiningen: First harvest has begun!

Grain harvest in Schmalkalden-Meiningen: First harvest has begun!

The grain harvest has begun in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district. The starting signal was given on hot days at the beginning of July and the Jüchsen agricultural company began threshing the winter barley. However, there was a short break because plant production manager Jakob Höfling explained that the straw from the previous day had to be picked up first. Light rain is forecast for the next day, but modest, which could affect harvest operations. However, winter barley is not ripe everywhere, which makes harvesting more difficult and creates additional challenges, reports inSouth Thuringia.

A look across the borders shows that the grain harvest is also underway in other European countries. In France, for example, sowing of spring barley was completed quickly, despite initial delays due to wet weather in March. Dry weather that same month favored growth and the plants are now in the tillering phase. In the Benelux countries, sowing has been going smoothly since mid-February thanks to good conditions. Similar successes were also recorded in Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, where most of the sowing was completed by the beginning of April. However, soil moisture has decreased in many of these regions and additional rainfall is needed to support growth, such as Agricultural today reported.

Drought and its consequences

The current drought is causing headaches for many farmers. The winter barley harvest in Germany is estimated at 9.5 million tons, which is an increase compared to 2022. Even if winter barley and the harvest results are overall positive, winter wheat in particular is suffering more from the climatic conditions. As a result, Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir is planning to reconsider the closure of fields in order to avert an impending grain shortage, which is being exacerbated by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Since 2023, the EU has been pursuing a strategy of not cultivating four percent of agricultural land to preserve biodiversity, which further complicates the situation Back Intern shows.

Current market movements show that wheat prices are rising. After the grain agreement with Russia expired in mid-July, prices on the stock exchanges in Paris and Chicago increased. September wheat is now at 253.75 euros per ton on Euronext, while in Chicago a ton of wheat now costs 238.31 euros. These price developments clearly show that crop conditions and global events have a major influence on the markets.

The harvest in Rhineland-Palatinate is off to an optimistic start, but it remains to be seen how the weather conditions will affect the further harvest results. Farmers and agricultural experts are required to react flexibly and adapt to the challenges of the weather in order to secure crop yields.