Romania
24/03/11 -- Reports from Romania suggest that an acute lack of seed may lead to many acres going unplanted this year. My man on the ground over there says that they would normally expect a wheat acreage of around 2.1-2.2m ha, but that this season only 1.7m ha got planted in the autumn and that is before any winterkill. As far as rapeseed is concerned only around half of the "normal" overall 600,000 ha got planted in the autumn, and again there are potential wintekill issues here too. "Farmers are apparently killing to get it (seed) to try and replace what was not seeded in the autumn - particularly rape in the south of Romania, but there is simply not the seed available," he says.
"So far on normal work progress, they are starting to top dress in the south of Romania and we should get going next week. Crops barely out of dormancy. Land very wet, but winterkill looks minimal in our area," he adds.