The European Union's crop monitoring service MARS forecast higher yields for this year's winter grains harvests on Monday, saying most crops had resisted wild swings in temperatures that had raised concerns of damage. In its first yield forecasts for the 2018 grain crops MARS put this year's average soft wheat yield at 6.20 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), up 1.4 percent from 2017 and 3.8 percent above the five-year average.
This winter was characterised by highly variable conditions in most of the bloc, with warmer-than-usual weather in the first half of the season, followed by a sharp drop in temperatures linked to the incursion of cold polar air mass into central and southeastern Europe. "Weather conditions have generally been adequate for the wintering and early establishment of winter cereals, despite the unusual weather conditions experienced in large parts of Europe," MARS said in its monthly report.
MARS projected the average 2018 winter barley yield at 6.05 t/ha, up 1.0 percent from 2017. For spring barley, for which sowings are still ongoing in some parts of the bloc, it pegged a rise in yields of 5.2 percent from last year to 4.27 t/ha.
In oilseeds, rapeseed yields were expected at 3.28 t/ha this year, up 0.8 percent from 2017. MARS noted that yield forecasts for winter crops were based mostly on the statistical trends, which in several countries are positive, and stressed they were very uncertain due to the early stage of the season. It did not release estimates for this year's maize (corn) and sugar beet crops in this month's report.
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