SPRING STATUS

Now that the spring field work is complete, and just before the harvest of winter crops sets in, it’s time to take a status of the operation.When you read the following regarding horticulture, it is important to note that this is a status as things look in Week 24/25. The rest of the season is still dependent on external factors, primarily wind and weather, of course, market conditions, etc.Field work during the autumn, as well as the spring, has been carried out to the extent that was planned coming into respectively the autumn and spring seasons, and deviated a few percent in relation to the financial budget for 2012. After sowing rapeseed in the autumn, we experienced about eight weeks without rain throughout Romania and neighbouring countries/regions, which meant that the rapeseed sown germinated and then died because of the drought. This has meant that we had to re-sow 1320 HA – of which 245 HA was with wheat, 400 HA with sunflower and 675 HA with corn.

Winter crops (rapeseed, wheat, barley) Work during the autumn preparing the soil and sowing winter crops was of course marked by great busyness and intensity, but was completed on time and generally with excellent results. Apart from the drought problem that was assessed as being unavoidable. The wheat fields were for the most part also somewhat slow to get started in the autumn due to water shortages, but some rain and warm weather late in the year has meant that wheat has sur-vived the winter nicely, without winterkill, and the overall picture of the wheat is very promising. However, it was so dry in Mizil in early spring that the wheat yield has not been optimal here. It is only within the last two weeks that there has been very heavy rain here. This rain has to some ex-tent rectified the wheat in Mizil.

There are only 50 HA of rapeseed remaining, which was assessed as being survivable, i.e. that the best financial result is to save the rapeseed.
The 100 HA of winter barley has fared well through the winter. The variety was really intended for experimental use as malting barley, but we do not have high hopes of this, so it may end up as feed barley, which is normally in high demand in Romania. Summary of winter crops: Weather – particularly rainfall – has been far from optimal. Very dry au-tumn everywhere. In the east, the rain came very late and violently in the spring, and in the west the spring was very wet with 135 mm of rain in April and 150 mm in May. Naturally this has given a loss and 1300 HA had to be re-sown, just as the spring was marked by the weather, particularly Mizil, but it seems as though our major wheat areas are performing well and generally there should be the basis for a reasonable crop.

Spring crops (corn, sunflower) Sowing of spring crops in the east has progressed well, interrupted only by a rainy period in the middle of the process. In turn, the seed bed, of course, was very dry, putting increased demands on sewing technique. It has been somewhat more problematic in the west, because 135 HA were sown in early April and then it rained every day until 1 May. There was then only approx. 14 days for sowing of rapeseed and spraying. In the majority of the fields we had a good starting point, because the autumn preparation of the fields was conducted well. So in spite of the unfavourable weather gods, we have for most of the fields, had a well-established crop for both corn and in the 400 HA of sunflower in Mizil. There are a few black spots, a few % of corn land, where the seeds drowned/rotted due to constant rain for a period after sowing. It has also been successful on the dry land in Mizil, where sowing was deep enough that virtually everything has germinated well. Assessed at Week 24, it seems we also have a good starting point for spring crops. The very larg-est part of the fields look really sound, and we have made good progress in the area of technical horticulture, just as we must appraise that as a result of having substantial parts of the land in op-eration for several years is beginning to pay off. We are still struggling in some places with tenacious weeds, among others reed, just as efforts with the application of agricultural lime continues. We have a price-related challenge in regards to agricultural lime in the west, so all possibilities are being investigated and to hit an economic opti-mum will be a challenge here, when the very high prices of agricultural lime are taken into account. The basis exists for some reasonable yields with good weather for the rest of the growing season, also for spring crops, and thus ensuring that the total budgetary prerequisite can be achieved.

Construction in Oravita and Mizil (FEADR projects) As you know, improvements and extensions are underway of the grain facilities in Oravita and Mizil for which we have obtained approval of support from the EU (FEADR). It is very important that the building work is carried out without inconvenience to operations and earnings, so we have phased the part of the construction work that is now contracted, so that we are finished with the concrete work before the start of the wheat harvest in early July, and the building of an extension for loading crops, as well as the dryer at Mizil and to clean both sites. Consequently we will be able to store the wheat safely and securely, and immediately after the wheat harvest the new, better and faster transportation of conveyors and bucket elevators, etc., will be installed, as well as increasing the capacity of the silo at Oravita so that it is ready for the corn harvest.

Yours Sincerely
Richard Duus CEO