Russia & Ukraine: There will be winterkill of grains and oilseeds

In the middle of January a cold wave struck Eastern Europe, with record low temperatures in some parts of Russia. Snowfall followed a few days later. The cold reached far into Western Europe, with extremely cold temperatures in Poland, Eastern Germany, the Czech Republic and the Balkans.

No doubt, there will be winterkill of grains and oilseeds, especially in areas, where there was none or little snow cover, when the frost started. That seems to be mainly the South Central and Volga districts of Russia, much of the Ukrainian territory, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. The extent will not be known before spring.

After dryness and late planting of winter grains on a smaller acreage in Russia and Ukraine, wheat harvests will most likely be quite a bit smaller than last year. As always in such cases, a large percentage of lost winter acres may be replanted with spring barley.

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