After a very wet winter, farmers in Germany are hoping for dry weather. In Lower Saxony in particular, the heavy rainfall since last October has led to massive flooding, said the managing director of the German Raiffeisen Association, Jörg Migende. Therefore, fields planted with potatoes or sugar beets could not be harvested or winter sowing was not possible. “But there are big regional differences here,” said Migende.
In addition to large parts of Lower Saxony, the coastal regions of the North and Baltic Seas were affected. “In other regions of Germany, autumn sowing has largely taken place without any problems,” said Migende.
Effects of the wet winter
Basically, it was very humid throughout Germany last winter, said Christoph Hambloch from the Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft in Bonn. “This is also good news because many crops will benefit from the enormous winter moisture for a long time to come,” he explained. The groundwater bodies have been filled again since 2018 after the dry years and there is a fair amount of moisture in the soil, which should help the plants even in drier weather phases over the course of the year.
The effects of the wet weather on farmers vary greatly depending on the nature of the soil, explained Hambloch. However, there is still time for spring sowing. This means there is still time for the soil to dry and for farmers to start working in the fields.
According to estimates by the Raiffeisen Association, the area under grain cultivation in Germany will be noticeably below the previous year’s value, and not just because of the wet winter. “The reason for this is that the cultivated area is declining by around 30,000 hectares every year,” said Migende. Construction work is one reason. However, this value is likely to have increased in recent years, primarily due to the expansion of ground-mounted photovoltaics.
Migende explained that it is currently impossible to estimate when the previously uncultivated areas will be accessible again and summer cereals can be sown. There is also likely to be rot damage on many areas that were not flooded but became very wet due to the large amounts of rain. The yields of summer grain are anyway lower than those of winter grain. It is also not yet clear when the areas can be used again and thus fertilized again. The Raiffeisen Association wants to present an initial harvest assessment in mid-March.