In the Odesa region, farmers cannot start the harvesting campaign of early grains due to bad weather conditions, in particular, long rains. This is reported by Latifundist.com.
"Since the beginning of the month, more than 150 ml of precipitation has fallen - this is almost a six-month norm for our region. The barley is technologically ready, but it does not have enough sun to dry. The harvesting campaign has already been delayed for about two weeks due to the cold spring. Previously, the harvesting campaign started on June 20-25, and now we will definitely start on July 1. At the same time, it is not known when we will clean, because it has been raining all week," said Victor Kozhuharenko, director of the "Viktoria" farm.
According to him, in the north of Ukraine the situation with the harvesting campaign is not as critical as in the south, since there it usually starts a week later.
"There was 30% less rain in the north than in the south. If you look at the map, the cyclone is only over Odesa, Kherson and Nikolaev regions, Melitopol," Kozhuharenko explained.
For example, 130 mm of precipitation has fallen in Bessarabia since the beginning of the month, and another 60 mm is forecast.
"From extreme to extreme - last year there was a drought, and now there are showers. Theoretically, the early grain harvesting campaign should have already started. We contracted harvesters for June 15, and there, as a rule, they started when they were ready. But today I went through the fields - the crops are yellow-green, in some places they have already fallen. In addition, grain crops develop diseases," Andrey Kramarenko, director of Bessarabia Agro, emphasized.
The farmer emphasizes that about 10% of the barley and wheat crops have fallen. At the same time, sprayers cannot enter such crops, and diseases continue to develop.
"Another 10 days of rain are forecast, and the harvest is about to begin. "If they don't start, it might start to collapse," concluded Kramarenko.
