Rain this week meant that little harvesting took place here in Ireland and many winter barley crops are now at the stage where they need to be cut and straw needs to be gathered – particularly after yesterday’s rain.
Oats and oilseed rape are also on the agenda when weather conditions allow. Earlier this week, Teagasc reported that winter barley yields are “very poor”.
Also Read: Winter barley yields ‘very poor’ – TeagascWheat prices declined early in the week, but recovered towards the end of the week. An increase in the estimated area of wheat planted in Russia no doubt contributed to this, as production was revised upwards.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) reported this week that Russia’s official statistics agency increased the estimated wheat area to 29.4 million hectares which is reported to be the highest area planted since the 1970s.
The Russian Institute for Agricultural Market Studies then revised its production back up to 78 million tonnes. It had dropped to 76.5 million tonnes on the week of July 13.
EU report puts wheat down and barley up
The European Commission released its MARS Bulletin on July 27 and the outlook was positive. Spring barley yields were revised upwards by 6.4% from the June bulletin, while the forecast for winter wheat was revised downwards.
Maize grain and sunflower yields are still forecast to be above the five-year average.
Also Read: Improved yield expectations for spring barley in EuropeUS crop progress report
In the US, maize and soybean conditions have improved. 72% of both the corn and soybean crops were reported to be in good-to-excellent condition in the latest Crop Progress Report released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on July 27.
This is an increase of 3% from the last report on July 13.
Grain markets
On the continent, feed barley (delivered Rouen) was trading at €163/t on Friday morning, July 31, while Free-On-Board (FOB) Creil malting barley was trading at €174/t.
