When it comes to this year's harvest, there is full agreement on one thing – it started at least two weeks earlier. There is no consensus as to their course and the size and quality of the crops. A stormy discussion broke out after Michał Kołodziejczak, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said from the parliamentary podium – The harvest in Poland is going well. As for the harvest, representatives of the ODR and the Chambers of Agriculture say that in some places they may be lower by 10% or 20%, according to the Central Statistical Office – by 4%. This applies to basic cereals, excluding corn. According to current information, we will collect a total of approximately 25.5 million tons of these cereals in Poland. This is a very similar harvest to last year. Including corn, it will be just over 35 million tons.
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This optimistic summary sparked opposition from representatives of the Young Farmers' Movement, who accused the deputy minister of agriculture of providing data without asking what the actual situation was for farmers. And this one – according to my observations – is very different.
Obviously, the harvest every year is different from the previous one for some reason. This time it is difficult to assess why it is so that when one farmer had everything cut, his neighbor was just starting, saying that the grain was only just ripe. When farmers from the Podlaskie Voivodeship had the harvest behind them, their neighbors from Masuria were halfway through. But it's a difference of several dozen kilometers. Typically, such discrepancies were between the southern, central and northern parts of Poland.
The harvest continues
In the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (as of July 31, 2024), farmers are still mowing, while in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship they are already collecting straw. That is why Damian Murawiec, a farmer from the Elbląg area, reacted immediately to the words of Deputy Minister Michał Kołodziejczak. As he said on his farm, the harvest is neither easy nor exceptionally good in terms of yield, because although it started earlier, it was interrupted by rains. Later, there were problems with entering the fields because the combine harvester was stuck in the mud. Although the damage is not as bad as that experienced by farmers in other regions after storms and hail, the cereals waiting in the fields to be harvested are losing quality every day, says Murawiec. Quality wheats have a low protein content (below 12.5%), there is also a problem with density, which is below the norm. The harvest volume is not optimistic either. In the case of wheat, it is 6-8 tons per ha. As for rapeseed, it was from 2.8 tons to 4.5 tons per ha. However, its parameters were not bad – oil content ranged from 42% to 45.6%. The issue of prices is also not so obvious. According to a farmer in Warmia and Mazury, for consumption wheat on July 26, 2024, it was possible to purchase approximately PLN 840/t, and PLN 750/t for feed wheat. And this is less compared to the prices mentioned by Michał Kołodziejczak – Feed wheat prices start from PLN 800 net per tonne, up to PLN 950 for the highest quality grain.
photo: I. Pacholska
With protein parameters of 12.5%, the net purchase price is only PLN 840/t (July 31, 2024). Therefore, farmers who have the ability to store grain wait before selling it. They only buy what they can't fit or what they need to have for urgent expenses.
Yield problem
On July 29, 2024, Marek Józefowicz from Samin near Olsztynek still had 60 ha to mow out of the 160 ha sown with wheat and triticale. Previously, he could not mow because the grain was not yet ripe and later it was too wet because hot days occurred together with heavy rainfall. After a rainy afternoon, the next day farmers had to wait until 4 p.m. until the grain dried "on the stump" and had a maximum moisture content of 14%. Only below this value can it be placed in storage. All this significantly shortened the working time. Moreover, the yield is worse due to spring drought. Marek Józefowicz from Samin showed its effects in his field during the harvest. – There is no Ian at all. You will see what it looks like – said Józefowicz, after the drought in May, in some places the field is so scarce that the combine harvester has nothing to harvest. If it had rained twice then, it would have been different. The yield of 3t per ha is not even half of what the farmer usually harvested from here.
The advantage of the harvest being two weeks earlier is that you don't have to rush, because the planned dates for subsequent work, and above all, sowing, fall at the end of August – says Krzysztof Biadała from a farm in Łajsy near Olsztyn. Here, on July 30, 2024, there were still approximately 200 ha of winter cereals and corn to be mowed. In total, 600 ha were sown. Of this, 170 ha are crops mown during the so-called "small harvest", which in Łajsy ended around July 20, 2024. And even then, the spring cereal grain was not yet fully developed and we had to wait. The crops are dried and then stored. The contracted rapeseed has arrived at the purchasing facility, what is left is waiting in the warehouse for price increases. Currently, purchasers in Warmia and Mazury offer approximately PLN 2,000/t. In the case of rapeseed, according to Krzysztof Biadała, the yield was poor, amounting to approximately 3 tons per ha, fortunately with good oil content – over 43%. Cereals perform better – wheat from 6 to 9 tons per ha, rye over 7 tons per ha.
The south of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship is finishing the harvest, which had very different course on farms – says Łukasz Pergoł from Działdowo. This is the result of local rainfall. Even next door, work was carried out with varying intensity. Yields lower than in the Olsztyn area. Rape from 1.5 to 4.5 tons per ha, which gives an average of 2.5 tons. Rye from 3 to 7 tons per ha, while wheat and triticale from 4 to 7 tons per ha and the parameters will probably allow the grain to be qualified for consumption.
So was it a good harvest? It is difficult to dare to make such a summary. Their beginning during a heatwave gave the chance that they would not only be earlier, but also lightning fast. In Warmia and Mazury, the rains did not allow this. The May drought spoiled the crop. As farmers say – we should be happy that the storms did not completely destroy the crop and there was something to harvest. And they add – the joy of what was collected would be greater if the prices in the shopping centers were higher.
