At the moment, the grain harvesting campaign is ahead of schedule, but due to weather conditions the harvest may be reduced.
To date, a grain harvesting campaign has already begun in the Russian Federation. At the same time, it is going faster than last year.
As noted by the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Oksana Lut, about 32 million tons of grain have already been harvested at the moment, which is more than last season on the same date.
At the same time, the minister noted that the Ministry of Agriculture still maintains the forecast for grain at 132 million tons.
However, it is possible that the final result may be lower, including due to difficult weather conditions, which may negatively affect the performance.
In particular, there is currently a drought in the south of the country, which may lead to an adjustment in the forecast. The minister made such statements as part of the “Siberian Field Day 2024” in the Altai Territory.
At the same time, some Russian enterprises have already completed grain harvesting or are close to it.
For example, at Krasnodarzernoproduct-Expo, cleaning ended 2 weeks earlier than in the previous season. At the same time, the gross harvest does not differ from last year’s figures, company representatives note, but the quality turned out to be worse.
“The pea yield is lower than last year — 36 c/ha versus 42 c/ha, respectively.
The yield of rapeseed this year also decreased to 36 c/ha, while in 2023 the figure was at 46-48 c/ha. But the quality of these agricultural crops is no worse than the year before,” says the company’s general director, Evgeny Sidyukov.
According to him, the reason for the decline in yields was mainly drought in the Krasnodar Territory.
In the Steppe agricultural holding, winter wheat and barley have been harvested by 85%, and peas have been completely harvested. The early onset of spring and high temperatures in March and April meant that this year’s harvest campaign was able to start and end earlier than usual.
The agricultural holding also noticed a 10% decrease in yield compared to last year.
As for the quality of the collected grain, it can only be assessed after the harvesting campaign is completed, experts say.
In some regions, for example, in the Rostov region, they give negative forecasts for the grain harvest.
Governor Igor Guskov noted that in 2023, a record for grain collection was set in the region at 16 million tons.
But this year forced us to face difficult weather conditions; due to soil drought, a state of emergency was even introduced. Due to frost and drought, a total of 20% of crops were damaged, which is almost 1 million hectares, the governor said.
