- An unusual year surprised many rapeseed and winter cereal growers.
- He brought many surprises.
- The 2024 season is confirmation that agrotechnics cannot be approached routinely.
Starting from sowing, each month was surprised by high temperatures for a given period. Right from the time of emergence, the winter crops were racing with their development phases like crazy. Fortunately, the mild winter did not bring any surprises, although with greater frosts a lot could have happened. Some people also claim that too warm a winter is not conducive to winter crops (short vernalization period, threat from diseases and pests, depletion of nutrients due to creeping vegetation).
An unusual early spring, or rather the lack thereof
What was surprising was the conditions in early spring, or rather the fact that due to high temperatures there was no early spring at all. Throughout March and until mid-April, plant development progressed at a very fast pace. As a result, rapeseed started flowering exceptionally early, because in mid-April the first flowers appeared in the south. The oldest farmers do not remember such a phenomenon.
Some early cereal varieties even timidly entered the earing phase at this time. This situation became very dangerous in the face of spring frosts that hit after April 20 this year.
In regions where strong temperature drops were recorded (especially the Opole and Lower Silesian Voivodeships), rapeseed was most often in full flowering. This resulted in the formation of a frost layer of several centimeters, i.e. a fragment without tied pods. Interestingly, it happened that frost damaged even early sown varieties of winter cereals. The damage was visible in the ears of corn, which did not set kernels. The ears of corn were empty and worthless. The damage estimated by insurance appraisers in winter crops ranged from several percent of crop loss to even several dozen in some places.
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Early wheat varieties had problems this year. What crops?
A non-standard year means non-standard protection
What also surprised winter crop growers this year? In rapeseed, pests have appeared, mainly stem worms and silique pests. They hit very hard locally.
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How does rapeseed grow? The first combine harvesters on the plantations
In cereals, however, the conditions were so unfavorable during periods of increased protection that symptoms of phytotoxic reactions were often recorded on plants. Moreover, the protection was often not very effective, which was visible when the crops were ripening, when the panicles of broom or other weeds appeared above the field. Many of them were simply guided by the calendar rather than paying attention to the field situation. Spring herbicides were often applied too late and did not reach the weeds due to the already lush biomass.
This season, farmers often had problems diagnosing field problems. They did not know whether the yellowed leaves were a result of stress after protection treatments, whether they were the beginning of fungal diseases, or whether they were visible symptoms of drought (water deficit occurred after mid-May) or maybe frosts.
In winter barley, however, the strong infection of plants with barley yellow dwarf disease was a surprise.
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Low yield of winter barley. Most often, it is the fault of viruses, drought and sometimes frost
June is marked by storms and storms
June was a period of unstable weather. There were storms in many regions. Where more than 50 l/m2 of water fell at once and the rainfall was accompanied by hail, the plants experienced another severe stress. However, successive rains saved the development of the last parameter of the yield structure, i.e. the thousand-grain weight. Pouring grain took place in better conditions than last year. The water also allowed for the removal of nitrogen from the soil from the second and third doses of nitrogen or from current mineralization. Hence the hope that this year the cereals will build protein and it will be possible to obtain grain with consumer parameters, but we will find out whether the theory and practice match when the harvest gains a significant pace.
Unfortunately, many farmers resigned from carrying out the T-3 treatment, mainly for economic reasons, which may result in a proverbial hiccup, because June's rains signaled the development of ear diseases (fusarium blight, chaff blight) and brown rust often appeared on the flag leaf.
How will the year end for winter crops?
The summary of the season is not only the yield, but also the price that can be obtained for the seeds.
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Rapeseed price. Yesterday the maximum was 2015, today it is PLN 2,060 
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What price for mowing cereals and rapeseed in 2024?
And the one just before and during the harvest always develops dynamically. We will monitor the harvest progress on farmer.pl, posting signals from various regions there. Therefore, keep an eye on the portal, specifically on the special website created for this occasion (Harvest 2024), because, like every year, we will keep our finger on the pulse during the harvest period.
