News about the development and state of crops in France
05/29/2007: French production and quality in a downward trend
In several French regions spring barley shows signs of a disturbed development of its yield potential. Heterogeneous crops, smaller quantities of stems carrying ears and reduced ears are on many fields the result of the hot and dry April. Quality estimations are on a downward trend too.
That the crops in the region of Champagne-Ardenne have suffered from these unfavorable climatic conditions is clearly shown by a comparison of the two satellite images from mid-April (cw 16) and the beginning of May (cw 19). Those growing areas which were green colored on the satellite image at first became progressively yellow over the dry period. The current situation at that time was getting worse, decreasing from over-average first to under-average crop condition during April.
The under-averaged spring barley crop yield, which is forecasted by IntelCrop in this important French production area, is partly compensated by the increased spring barley acreage this year. The production is expected not to fall under the previous year’s level of 9.6 millions tones.
Poitou-Charantes - West of France
06/21/2006: Dry conditions in western France critical for winter wheat
Four weeks without rainfall threaten the crops in western France. Continuing dry conditions are forecasted for the cropping region of Poitou-Charentes with 400.000 hectares of winter wheat. Winter wheat crops are in the critical stage of grain filling.
During this development stage only 24 mm of precipitation were available to the crops this year for example in Vienne which is a department with a winter wheat area of 138.000 hectares. The quadruple of rainfall is required during the grain filling period for reaching maximum yield like in 2002.
Marne - Champagne
03/13/2006: Winter wheat in Marne after dormancy
In the region Marne in the French Champagne winter wheat came out of the winter in a good condition and is entering the development phase of tillering (24).
03/13/2006: Sowing of spring barley in Marne started later this year
In the region Marne in the French Champagne the sowing of the spring barley has begun in calendar week 9. Due to the low temperatures in February the sowing took place this year 2 weeks later than in the previous years. Regionally, there is the danger of sowing into a seed bed which is too dry.
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