July 19, 2011

German farmers see smaller 2011 grain crop

Germany's 2011 grain crop of all types is likely to fall 6.4% to 41.2 million tonnes, down from 44.2 million tonnes last year as late rain was not enough to fully compensate for a spring drought, the German Farm Cooperatives Association said on Monday (Jul 18).

This was slightly up on the association's previous estimate of 40.8 million tonnes in June as recent rain had provided some relief to parched crops, it said.

The rapeseed harvest is likely to fall a sharp 25.1% on-year to 4.3 million tonnes, down from 5.73 million tonnes in 2010, it said.

"The association retains its sceptical forecasts for the 2011 crop," it said. "The relatively good conditions in June, with heavy rain, helped grain pod development and so yields for summer grains and wheat," it said.

"But the rain came too late for rapeseed and barley."

Germany's 2011 wheat harvest of all types is forecast to fall 4.0% on-year to 22.82 million tonnes from 24.05 million tonnes last year, it said.

This was up from the 22.3 million tonnes forecast by cooperatives in June, but sharply down from 25.5 million tonnes of wheat forecast in April before drought hit.

Germany is the EU's second largest wheat producer after France. German wheat yields are estimated to fall 5.3% on the year to 6.83 tonnes a hectare, it said.

Rapeseed yields had been especially hard-hit by drought. The estimated rapeseed planted area had also been reduced by 6.5% on the year to 1.3 million hectares as frosts followed by dryness ruined some plantings, it said.

Germany's harvest of winter barley used for animal feed is forecast to fall 18.8 % to 7.00 million tonnes, it said.