Saxony’s farmers have started to bring in the grain. The harvest started earlier than usual. Is heat and prolonged drought depressing yields?
Pegau/Dresden (dpa/sn) – After the heat and drought, Saxony’s farmers are driving the combine harvesters onto the fields particularly early this year. “The barley has become ripe,” said Stefan Heilmann, head of the Kitzen agricultural products in Pegau near Leipzig of the German Press Agency. That’s why his company started the grain harvest at the beginning of the week. “It’s not normal.” The harvest here usually doesn’t begin until July, explained Heilmann. His farm cultivates 2,800 hectares of arable land, of which grain grows on around 1,900 hectares.
The grain harvest has started in some regions, but not yet everywhere in Saxony, said the spokeswoman for the state farmers’ association, Diana Henke. That is earlier than usual. While the combine harvesters are already collecting the grain from the fields in lower-lying regions, things are not that far in the mountains. The association did not want to give a forecast for the harvest. In addition, data would be collected, explained Henke. The farmers’ association is planning a press conference on the grain harvest in mid-July and will then provide detailed information.
Especially in the northern regions of Saxony, emergency ripening of winter barley can be assumed as a result of the heat wave with extreme drought in June, the Ministry of Agriculture in Dresden said in response to a dpa request. “If the heat wave continues, there is a risk that yield and quality losses will occur in some regions, especially in winter wheat.” With the harvest results this year, large regional differences are to be expected again.
Winter barley is harvested first, followed later by rapeseed, spring grain and wheat. Heilmann’s barns will probably not fill up as much as usual. On average, the barley yield in previous years was 80 quintals per hectare, he explained. So far it has been 5 quintals less. “The wheat is guaranteed to get a lot worse,” he said. “If there’s a 7 in front, I’d be very happy.” The farmer sees a lack of rainfall in the region as the cause of the drop in yield.
According to the State Statistical Office, Saxony’s farmers cultivate a little more than 700,000 hectares of arable land. More than half of this is cultivated with grain: around 378,700 hectares. The most common type of grain is wheat (194,100 hectares), followed by barley (113,100). Other crops such as rye, triticale, grain maize and oats are grown on a much smaller scale. In addition to grain, farmers can also harvest rapeseed in the summer. According to the statisticians, winter rape is the second most important crop in Germany after grain. It’s growing to around 105,400 hectares this year.
