The past May turned out to be atypical for many Russian regions. For a number of them, it was abnormally hot: the air warmed up to +35 degrees and above, many local temperature records were broken. At the same time, somewhere the heat was accompanied by drought, but not everywhere. The crops of the country's main granaries - the southern regions and the Central Black Earth Region - may suffer from weeds and diseases due to heavy rainfall in May, often exceeding the average annual norms. Experts of the August company and its agro-consulting laboratories assessed the risks that the last month of the capricious spring of 2021 brought to domestic farmers.
The Rostov region in 2020 became the record-breaking region for the grain harvest in Russia, and this year it may well retain this status. According to the agronomist of the Agroanalysis-Don laboratory in the city of Azov, Rostov region, Tatiana Novikova, May in the region was not abnormally hot: one and a half months' precipitation fell, and temperatures remained below average.
“The development of winter wheat is proceeding normally, it has thrown away an ear and at the moment, in some areas of the region, it has entered the phase of filling an ear. There is enough moisture for crops, and it can already be assumed that the harvest in our region may be higher than in the dry 2020, ”the specialist believes.
The rains in the Rostov region partially complicated the situation with spring crops: for example, in many farms by the beginning of June, sunflower had not yet been sown, while the sowing campaign in the region, as a rule, is completely completed by May 10 in the southern regions and by May 20 in the northern regions. ... The lag is also observed among vegetable growers: so, usually by the end of May, early potatoes are already being dug in the region, but in 2021 at that time it was just approaching the budding phase and it was too early to harvest. Other vegetables in open ground also develop and ripen more slowly: this indicates, first of all, that the timing of their harvesting will slightly shift. However, in terms of quantitative indicators, yield forecasts for vegetable crops are also favorable.
“At the same time, it is important to note that due to constant rainfall, many agricultural producers were not able to carry out herbicide treatments on time, and this could exacerbate the problem with weeds. In addition, if in June the humidity and temperature conditions remain approximately the same as in May, then it will be necessary to beware of outbreaks of bacterial and fungal plant diseases, ”warns Tatiana Novikova.
As the head of the Agroanalysis Center laboratory in the town of Gryazi, Lipetsk region, Vyacheslav Krasin, states that winter crops in the Central Chernozem Region, due to cold April and the ice crusts formed on the fields, overwintered poorly, and now most of them are either already sown with spring wheat and barley, or are sown with industrial crops ... At the same time, the farmers hope that the worst is over.
“High stable temperatures in the middle of the second and third ten days of May favored a very rapid development of abandoned winter wheat crops. Now it is important to ensure the protection of plants, since there is no moisture deficit, which was facilitated by the abundant precipitation in May, says Vyacheslav Krasin. - With spring crops, the situation is developing very positively - due to the increased temperatures and soil moisture. The development of both wheat and barley is very fast, especially in those farms that have taken care of sufficient nutrition and protection from weeds. At the same time, on the last weekend of May at night, the air temperature dropped to +6 degrees in combination with precipitation, so farmers now need to closely monitor pests and diseases. For our part, we are trying to help them in this ”.
“It was really cool in the south this spring as a whole,” sums up the head of the product development department of the “August” company Dmitry Belov. - As for Central Russia, despite the warm weather, due to a significant amount of precipitation, we observe "swollen" fields in the Kursk, Belgorod, Orel regions. This complicates the processing of fields with plant protection products and fertilizing with fertilizers. "
A similar situation has developed in the Stavropol Territory and in the Kuban, the expert notes: the crops are overgrowing, and the agrarians do not have time to protect them before the earing phase. At the same time, a number of other territories (for example, the Samara region, regions of the Volga region) were affected by high temperatures and a lack of precipitation. The crops here have experienced temperature stress, some of them have received thermal burns.
“Generally speaking, in 2021 the weather situation in Russia was very interesting and varied. The factor of high temperatures manifested itself differently in different regions, abnormal warming was not always accompanied by drought, and the farmers of the country's main granaries are concerned this season not with a moisture deficit, but with the ability to protect and maintain a harvest that is quite high in potential, ”notes Dmitry Belov.