Harvesting campaign in Ukraine started 10 days earlier than last year. As of June 20, 2012, early crops were threshed on an area of 67 thousand hectares with an output of 112 thousand tons of grain, the press service of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food told UKRINFORM.
 
"The harvest is gaining momentum in the Crimea, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The average yield of all cereals is 16.6 centners per hectare against 28.6 centners per hectare as of June 29, 2011," the ministry says.
 
In particular, as of June 20 this year, winter wheat was threshed on 13 thousand hectares with an output of 21 thousand tons of grain at a yield of 16.6 centners per hectare (33.5 centners per hectare in the previous year). Barley was harvested in the volume of 86 thousand tons from 51 thousand hectares, with an average yield of 16.7 centners per hectare (28.6 centners per hectare).
 
Although traditionally, according to experts, the yield of early grain crops at the beginning of harvesting shows relatively high values and decreases with the progress of field work to the north, the current year may be an exception. According to the company ProAgro, the abnormally early ripening of grain against a sultry dry weather has led to the fact that grain on large areas of southern Ukraine formed thin, with low full-scale weight. Accordingly, southern regions currently show low yields.
 
According to operational data, peas were harvested on an area of 3 thousand hectares, and 5 thousand tons of grain legumes were threshed. Yields of peas are higher than last year - 15.5 centners per hectare compared with 14.4 centners per hectare as of 29 June 2011.
 
The Crimea, Odesa and Kherson regions have also started to collect rape - by the time only 2,000 tons of oil seeds have been threshed, but the first results show a higher yield of the crop - 9.1 centners per hectare against 7.6 centners per hectare at the beginning of the 2011 harvesting campaign.
 
The productivity of late grain crops must also be not as pessimistic as that of early crops, however, according to experts, their yields will still be lower than last year.



UKRINFORM