German farmers see 7.9 percent fall in 2011 grain crop

Germany's 2011 grain crop of all types is likely to fall 7.9 percent on the year as dry spring weather has damaged crops, the German Farm Co-operatives Association said on Thursday in its new harvest forecast. It forecast the crop to fall to 40.8 million tonnes from 44.3 million tonnes in 2010.
This is slightly up on its previous estimate of 40.7 million tonnes in May following recent rain which provided limited relief to parched crops. "The association confirms its sceptical forecasts for the 2011 crop," it said. "Despite sometimes heavy rainfall in late May and early June, the harvest prospects have only improved negligibly following the very dry spring."
Germany's 2011 rapeseed harvest is likely to fall a dramatic 24.5 percent to 4.33 million tonnes from 5.73 million tonnes in 2010, it said. Germany's 2011 wheat harvest of all types is forecast to fall 7.2 percent on the year to 22.32 million tonnes from 24.05 million tonnes last year, it said.
This was marginally up from the 22.31 million tonnes forecast in May, but sharply down from 25.5 million tonnes of wheat forecast in April before drought hit. Germany is the European Union's second-largest wheat producer after France. German wheat yields are estimated to fall 4.9 percent on the year to 6.88 tonnes a hectare, it said.
Rapeseed yields had been especially hard-hit by drought. The estimated rapeseed planted area had also been reduced by 7.3 percent on the year to 1.36 million hectares as frosts followed by dryness ruined some plantings, it said. Rapeseed yields are likely to fall 18.6 percent on the year to 3.18 tonnes a hectare, it said. Germany's harvest of winter barley used for animal feed is forecast to fall 18.9 percent to 7.04 million tonnes, it said.
But the spring barley crop, used for beer and malt output, was forecast to rise 6.3 percent to 1.84 million tonnes against only 1.6 million tonnes forecast in April. Some other crops damaged by the hard winter and drought had been replaced by summer barley. French analyst Strategie Grains on Thursday sharply cut its forecast for this year's EU grain crops due to dry weather in west Europe in May and despite recent rainfall.