Christmas frosts in the central part of the country, as well as in other regions, can cause the death of a significant part of wheat and other crops sown «before winter».
Agrarians today are very worried about the question of whether winter crops will survive the winter.
Frosts under -30 degrees are generally typical for January, but this time the weather conditions were the worst.
For example, in the Moscow region on New Year’s Eve it was about zero degrees, so the snow cover almost disappeared.
Then, just a few days later, severe cold hit. As a result, winter crops were not protected and, most likely, died.
It will be possible to find out exactly this no earlier than March, notes Alexander Korbut, vice-president of the Russian Grain Union.
Similar problems are observed in other regions.
For example, in the Orenburg region, an ice crust has also formed on the fields. To some extent, it may have protected the crops from frost, but in itself it can become a problem if it does not melt in early spring, when the plants begin to “breathe”.
Local experts note: the situation is really anomalous, so even the experience of how to act in such conditions and what kind of forecasts to build has not yet been gained.
In the Orenburg region, the situation is no better: there, as a result of a thaw, puddles formed in the fields, and then they froze. Most likely, a significant part of the winter crops died.
Sowing of winter crops was also not successful
Looks like the weather is against them this season. And it’s not just about frost: at the end of autumn in many regions, including the Chernozem region, it rained, which forced the sowing to be pushed back into winter itself.
This is also a negative factor: the plants did not have time to form a full-fledged root system, which helps them a lot not to freeze in the cold.
Further, the situation also developed not as we would like.
“In general, wintering in the agricultural holding takes place in difficult weather conditions, in the Chernozem region at the beginning of winter, after a thaw, snow fell on thawed soil, low temperatures led to the formation of an ice crust on part of the sown areas,” says Pavel Tsarev, CEO of AgroGard. – Snow cover at enterprises in the Chernozem region is about 5 cm or fragmentarily absent. The snow cover has not formed at the enterprises in the Krasnodar Territory.”
However, according to him, the situation is still not critical. Although, of course, winter still has time to present new surprises.
In general, all farmers agree on one thing: in the spring it will become clear which part of the winter crops survived a difficult period. But, most likely, a considerable area of fields will have to be sown, and farmers are already preparing for this today.
