Lithuania Cropwatch

It's quite amazing who emails me from around the world that frequent this place.

Today, I've heard from a new farming chum, Almantas Liorentas, in Lithuania who has filled me in on the state of play over there where they produced a not insignificant 4.7 MMT of wheat last year.

Like just about everywhere else they had a bumper crop then, but things don't look quite so rosy this time round.

The main reason for running this story is that I'm sure it is being replicated all over eastern Europe (and significant parts of western Europe too) right now.

In Lithuania, the winter wheat acreage planted was similar to last season, says Almantas, but NPK fertiliser applications were cut back 'dramatically' in the autumn, and AN in the spring was also decreased due to the high prices being asked.

A more acceptable lower pricing structure didn't appear until after the main input period, he tells me.

Overall, winter wheat is looking quite reasonable, but will not match last season's record because of the late spring and drought in May. Rains have subsequently arrived, and most winter wheat has recovered reasonably well, according to Almantas.

More problems are visible with spring wheat however, he warns, where planting was delayed due to the late spring and the May drought limited germination.

With regards to inputs, many farmers in Lithuania are afraid to spend much money on fertilisers or pesticides because of uncertainty over wheat prices. This will ultimately lead to lower yields for sure, he concludes.

I suspect that you could probably replace the word Lithuania in this text with Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine etc, etc.