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He's back on his yak, Ukraine agronomist Mike Lee has returned from a whistle stop four day tour of eastern and central Ukraine to bring us the inside story on what things are really looking like.

It's an open mike, Mike:

"The general condition is good, most crops looking well, harvest has started in Crimea, elsewhere wheat and barley is turning fast, OSR nearing desiccation, SF about to start flowering, soya nodulating, maize 1-1.5m. One slight worry is weather forecast is wet over the next few days, just hope it's not the start of a wet July."

When I asked Mike for his assessment on whether or not winterkill loss reports had been overstated. He said it was "difficult to assess, you can see patches in wheat where the water/ice sat, and it varies form next to nothing up to 20% of each field. The remaining plants look good it will be a question of how much crop is "missing".

"On the same vein, I talked to a dozen farm directors and agronomists over this week and when I asked them what their yield estimation was of the crop we were stood in front of at the time they all over-estimated by quite a lot. My estimations fitted in with the two UK farmer type chaps who where with me."