The grain harvest in Kazakhstan has been under threat due to the rains that have been going on for two weeks. Agrarians of the northern and central regions cannot go out into the field and start a mass harvest from the 20th of August.
The ripening of cereals this season happened earlier than the traditional dates due to the hot dry summer. However, nature prevented the harvesting of the crop that had already arrived. Cloudy weather with prolonged rains captured the grain belt of Kazakhstan, which does not allow the equipment to fully work in the field to this day. Weather forecasters promise normalization of the weather only by the middle of the week.
There are several risks in this situation. Firstly, the volume of the crop suffers - overripe grain begins to crumble.
Secondly, grain quality is also under threat. Precipitation washes out gluten, reducing the classiness of wheat. If the equipment goes into the fields during short periods of good weather, then the harvested grain has a moisture content above 20%, while the norm is 14%. This forces farmers to dry the grain, which leads to additional costs and reduces the already low profitability of agricultural production this year.
And most importantly: due to high humidity, the germination of the grain remaining in the field begins. Moreover, the ear sprouts both on the vine and in the dumped wheat. This leads to a complete loss of quality, such grain will only be suitable for fodder.
Farmers note that the craze for short-stemmed imported varieties has played a cruel joke. The fact is that their spike stands vertically, and is more susceptible to moisture accumulation during rain, while in domestic varieties with a long stem, the spike droops, and moisture freely rolls down the spike scales.
Two-handled varieties (spring-winter) are also more susceptible to germination. They have a short seed dormancy period.
Against this background, it becomes obvious that a good price on the market this year can only be obtained for hi-pro wheat. And there will be a lot of fodder grain, and farmers will have to get rid of it for next to nothing. The way out for livestock farms is to feed grain to livestock, hoping to get more profitability through meat.
As for productivity, here the picture is very different depending on whether the region fell under precipitation in summer or remained completely without rain. It also matters whether the farm uses moisture-saving agricultural technologies.
If both terms are negative, then farmers report a yield of 4-7 q/ha. At the same time, the quality of grain is very low.
If the farmers approached the work competently and the weather helped them at least a little, then there are good results even in this difficult season.
Thus, the A. Baraev SPCSH (Akmola region) reported on the yield of production sites at the level of 18-20 centners per hectare. Here they use the minimum and zero sowing technology, which makes it possible to effectively use even small reserves of moisture.
Pavel Luschak, director of Naydorovskoye LLP (Karaganda region), also reported on good first results.
- So far, we are doing well in terms of grain, - said Pavel Luschak. - We have not yet entered the soft wheat, we remove the hard one. True, due to precipitation, we grind no more than 250-300 tons per day. This is as much as we can dry in a day on our own. The yield on the best field was 26 c/ha, on the worst - 14 c/ha.
In general, farmers compare the current season with 2019, when the weather conditions were similar: after a cold spring, there was a dry summer, and it rained for a long time in autumn. This led to empty ears, and in addition - to a decrease in the quality of grain. It is also already obvious that farmers will face problems in the formation of the seed fund due to grain germination. This means that already now you need to think about where to buy high-quality (germinating) seeds and what varieties to choose, taking into account all weather risks.
- Seeds of hoo how much will they cost! farmers are convinced.