April 24, 2007

Russia plants spring grains on 4.7 million hectares to April 23
 

Russia planted spring grains on 4.7 million hectares to Apr 23, which is 15.2 percent of the planned total area and 2.6 million hectares more than on the same date last year, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday.

Corn was planted to date on 147,500 hectares, 10.5 percent of the planned total area and 3,700 hectares more than on the same date last year.

Full-scale planting of spring grains in Russia this year began 5-10 days earlier than normal because of the unusually warm spring.

Russia's 2006 grain harvest was 78.4 million tonnes in clean weight, compared with 78.2 million tonnes in 2005.