As has been the case in many parts of Europe, the changeable weather and heavy rainfall has continued throughout July and the first half of August. This year’s harvest has therefore presented quite a challenge, as there haven’t been consecutive days of dry weather.

The lack of sunshine hours has to some extent had an effect on yields, primarily wheat. Extensive rainfall In some fields of rape has led to the formation of waterholes.

Another major challenge has been the fact that a lot of crops have been flattened by the wet and windy weather, which has led to quality issues and losses when harvesting.

A major theme on the European grain market is the wheat quality for bread wheat and milling wheat, where a major part of the harvested crop doesn’t meet requirements in terms of hectolitre weight, falling number and protein percent. It’s difficult to get a complete picture of the situation on the Romanian market, but there’s no doubt that there’s a shortage of good-quality wheat.

In relation to our colleagues, it appears that generally speaking our wheat has a reasonable quality compared to what’s otherwise available on the Romanian market. We don’t have any problems with protein percent or falling number – where we have large batches that meet these requirements. In terms of hectolitre weight we have considerable volumes that satisfy or almost satisfy the targets. There’s thus reason to believe that considerable quantities of our wheat can be sold as bread grain.

In line with our strategy we haven’t sold grain during the harvest, which is traditionally a buyer’s market, and this year the market has also suffered from overheating due to logistical challenges that we’ve managed to steer clear of. We’ve thus received bids of DKK 90-94/hkg. Of course we’re active in the market and are maintaining our strategy in terms of spreading our sales, which we’ll try to execute when prices approach European levels and we can take advantage of our high storage capacity and relatively good quality.

Status of the harvest:

In Oravita 139 HA barley and 107 HA wheat remain. Harvesting can’t take place until there have been a few days of dry weather that will enable operations to take place in these fields. According to the forecast, this should be possible later this month.

In Videle 15 HA rape remain, which are expected to be harvested within a day.

In Mizil 40 HA barley and wheat remain which are expected to be harvested within a couple of days once the most recent showers have dried up.

Rape harvest:

1,497 HA have been harvested at an average yield of 2.74 tonnes/HA.

The best field in Mizil gave 4.6 tonnes/HA, and in Videle 3.9 tonnes/HA.

The fields with the lowest yields are those that have been hardest hit by wet spots/areas where plants have actually been lost.

We were hit by a hurricane and hailstorm in the best field of 400 HA in Oravita shortly before the harvest. We’re insured for 2.5 tonnes/HA – the documented yield up until 2013 – so a figure of 2.5 tonnes/HA has been calculated in this field. Without this hail damage the yield would have considerably exceeded 2.5 tonnes/HA, an estimate that the claims assessor agreed with, so we’re trying to negotiate the new insurance contract with a higher reference yield.

The area includes 180 HA first-year fields, which have of course returned yields that are below average.

Winter barley harvest:

614 HA have been harvested at an average yield of 5.21 tonnes/HA.

The barley has a relatively low hectolitre weight, but the grain is otherwise deemed to be good.

Wheat harvest:

3,023 HA have been harvested at an average yield of 5.02 tons/HA.

The weather in June/July has been hard on the wheat, with a great shortfall in terms of sunshine hours and a very high proportion of crops being flattened. The combine harvester has managed to collect a lot of wheat, however, which means there have been no major problems in terms of quality, in addition to which shortfalls in terms of yield, while present, are limited.

Wheat field in which the crop has been flattened by the weather, but where yields of more than 5 tonnes per HA have been achieved.

A field ready for harvesting in Oravita on 31 July.

The continued rainfall and moderate temperatures throughout the summer have generally been of benefit to the spring-sown crops, so the overall picture for maize and sunflower is currently looking good, although there are a handful of sensitive areas that have been hit by too much rain and are suffering the consequences.

Best regards

Richardt Duus, CEO