Morning Musings And My Mates Mate
Plenty of rain over the weekend gives way to even more widespread wet stuff today. Drier and warmer is the outlook for the rest of the week, which certainly should perk things up somewhat.
Still, a few late May showers don't make a crop. It's not over until Mrs N#1 sings according to the ancient English proverb. My guts are rumbling this morning, I knew that kebab was a bad idea, and they are telling me that yields will at best only be average this year.
What is average? Coceral say 7.8 MT/ha is what we got last season and what they expect we will get this time round. Our very own Defra haven't issued an estimate yet, they're too busy cancelling propelling pens orders in a limp effort to conform to the newly introduced spending cuts.
Things could be worse, my mate has got this mate right, and he's an agronomist out in the wilds of Kazakhstan no less. Straight up. So I emailed him to ask how things are looking over there. There have been some media reports of the late arrival of spring and the nasty D word being an issue this season.
Here's his response:
"v dry-had the Mullah out yesterday to pray for rain; sheep were slaughtered,etc - we got 1mm of rain! They're still drilling here into v dry seedbeds - apparently normal!"
Mullah - "a teacher of Islam who knows how to recite the Quran" from Wikipedia, not to be confused with the German striker Gerd Müller, he was someone completely different.
Our chums the USDA have got a surprisingly informative piece on Kazakh wheat production here, if you are interested.
London wheat is down sharply this morning I see, possibly having gotten ideas a little above it's station of late. Certainly it looks like we are having to cram two days worth of losses into one, the market having been closed yesterday.
CBOT wheat is also continuing where it left off on Friday, around 8-9 cents lower. Paris grains are lower, but not down as much having had an opportunity to get some losses in yesterday too.
Still, a few late May showers don't make a crop. It's not over until Mrs N#1 sings according to the ancient English proverb. My guts are rumbling this morning, I knew that kebab was a bad idea, and they are telling me that yields will at best only be average this year.
What is average? Coceral say 7.8 MT/ha is what we got last season and what they expect we will get this time round. Our very own Defra haven't issued an estimate yet, they're too busy cancelling propelling pens orders in a limp effort to conform to the newly introduced spending cuts.
Things could be worse, my mate has got this mate right, and he's an agronomist out in the wilds of Kazakhstan no less. Straight up. So I emailed him to ask how things are looking over there. There have been some media reports of the late arrival of spring and the nasty D word being an issue this season.
Here's his response:
"v dry-had the Mullah out yesterday to pray for rain; sheep were slaughtered,etc - we got 1mm of rain! They're still drilling here into v dry seedbeds - apparently normal!"
Mullah - "a teacher of Islam who knows how to recite the Quran" from Wikipedia, not to be confused with the German striker Gerd Müller, he was someone completely different.
Our chums the USDA have got a surprisingly informative piece on Kazakh wheat production here, if you are interested.
London wheat is down sharply this morning I see, possibly having gotten ideas a little above it's station of late. Certainly it looks like we are having to cram two days worth of losses into one, the market having been closed yesterday.
CBOT wheat is also continuing where it left off on Friday, around 8-9 cents lower. Paris grains are lower, but not down as much having had an opportunity to get some losses in yesterday too.
