Bumper year for EU grain harvest
The 2003/04 European harvest was damaged by drought, heat wave and winter-kill. This year, set-aside requirements are reduced, boosting cereal acreage by about 2%, and growing conditions have been better.
Supply of grain in the EU-25 should be 15 to 18% ahead of last year, and with tariff rate quotas introduced earlier this year, there is little likelihood of a repeat of the substantial imports of Black Sea region feed grains, which depressed the EU market after last year's harvest.
EU-25 wheat production is set to rebound from 106.7m to 127.1m metric tonnes. Barley output is forecast to increase by 5.77m metric tonnes to 60.57m metric tonnes.
A 25% yield increase is expected to take maize production to 52.07m metric tonnes, reducing import requirements and curbing livestock feed prices.
Meanwhile, Teagasc advisers have reported good progress in Irish cereal crops, except on the lighter soils in the south east, where late-sown spring crops are unlikely to deliver full yield potential, due to drought stress.
Lodging has affected crops in many areas, especially winter oats and areas of nitrogen overlap, but disease levels are low.
The earliest crops have been harvested in the south, and growers of forage grain are advised to monitor dry matter, which can change 1 or 2% per day once the crop has reached 45% dry matter.
Irish grain production is forecast to rise from 2,041,000 tonnes in 2003 to 2,103,000 tonnes this year.
