Continent facing grain yield reductions

GRAIN yield reductions on the Continent of 11.5% in French wheat and 7.2% in Germany are being pencilled in for 2011, because it has now gone too late in the growing season for rain to help drought-hit areas.

Some wheat growers in the east of England have warned that their yields will be 25% behind 2010.

Severe difficulties have also been caused in livestock farming, leading to a request from France for direct payments to be paid early, in October, and to pay an 80% advance on the premium for suckler cow herds.