Wet weather conditions in north-west Europe, especially Ireland and parts of the UK, negatively affected the yield potential of crops and hampered sowing, according to the latest Crop Monitoring in Europe report from JRC MARS (Monitoring Agricultural Resources) bulletin.
The objective of the JRC MARS Bulletin is to provide timely, independent, and high-quality information on crop growing conditions and quantitative crop yield forecasts in the EU.
This is to support informed policy interventions and to contribute to the transparency of market information.
The report has stated that conditions improved somewhat in northern and part of western France, as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands and north-western Germany, but winter crops in inadequately drained fields are unlikely to fully recover from the overly wet conditions during autumn and winter.
Warm weather in other parts of Europe
Meanwhile, exceptionally warm spring temperatures, combined with adequate water supply in most parts of Europe benefitted winter crops and created favourable conditions for the sowing and emergence of spring cereals and summer crops.
Weather conditions have been particularly favourable in the Iberian Peninsula, leading to an upward revision of the yield forecast at EU level for durum wheat, spring barley and triticale.
However, water deficits, negatively affecting winter crops developed in central Greece and Cyprus.
In Sicilia, as well as in eastern Romania rainfall arrived too late or was too little to fully recover the water stressed winter crops.
Severe irreversible drought impact to winter crops is observed in large parts of Morocco and western Algeria, according to the report.
Areas of concern for crops
Water excess conditions are having a negative impact on winter and spring crops in Ireland and southern and central regions of the United Kingdom.
In Ireland, overly wet soils are complicating field works, limiting winter crop fertilisation and spraying of fungicides; locally, damage due to hypoxia can also be expected.
Yield forecasts have been reduced to below the five-year average for winter crops and to slightly below the five-year average for spring barley in Ireland.
Similarly, winter crops are in poor condition in parts of the UK.
In northern France and part of western France, as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands and north-western Germany, winter crops in inadequately drained fields are unlikely to fully recover from the overly wet conditions during autumn and winter.
The worst-impacted fields are or will be re-sown with summer crops, while fields on well drained soils are in good condition.
In north-eastern and north-western regions of Italy, abundant rainfall during the review period slowed down the early sowing of summer crops and led to sub-optimal conditions for winter crops.
However this was without impacting yield potential, which in later stages might benefit from the
additional soil water reserves.
Weather
According to the meteorolgical review, warmer-than-usual conditions prevailed in almost all of Europe.
Most regions were also wetter than usual, but it was drier than usual in parts of Scandinavia, central and southern Europe, and most of European Russia.
In most of these regions, average daily temperatures ranked among the warmest three in JRC records since 1991.
Warmer-than-usual conditions are forecast for Ireland and Portugal, as well as – with more substantial positive anomalies – in Turkey, eastern Ukraine, and eastern European Russia.
The long-range weather forecast for May-June-July points to highly likely warm conditions, exceeding the 24- year climatological median by up to 1°C in northern and by up to 2°C in southern Europe.
Precipitation up to 50 mm below the mean for parts of southern Europe in May and most of southern Europe by June-July.