A warm winter in the western part of the European Union means wheat is developing well in the top producers France, Germany and Britain, with the first conditions laid for a good 2014 harvest, analysts said on Thursday.Some concern about late sowings in France remain, while the absence of protective snow cover could leave plants vulnerable to sudden frosts, analysts cautioned."Wheat sowings in west European Union countries overall went well with no major problems reported," said Claus Keller, grains specialist with German commodity analysts F.O. Licht. "The weather has been generally mild and plants are in a good growth state."Naturally much can still happen in coming winter months but from the position today the preconditions for a good harvest have been created."In the EU's top wheat producer and exporter France, mild weather has boosted development of wheat plants after unfavourable autumn conditions delayed some sowings."The mild conditions have been beneficial, particularly by helping late-sown crops catch up," said Philippe Gate, scientific director at French crop institute Arvalis.Heavy rain hampered wheat sowing in much of France in October and November. This may have prevented farmers from finishing some sowing intentions and could trim the area for the 2014 harvest from the 4.9 million hectares currently estimated by the farm ministry, against 5 million hectares of soft wheat harvested in 2013.A risk for French wheat would be a sudden cold snap, with the recent mild conditions meaning plants were not fully hardened against freezing temperatures."We would need cold weather to arrive gradually," Gate said. For the week ahead, temperatures in France are forecast to remain mild, with lows staying above zero.In the EU's second largest wheat producer Germany, farmers have expanded sowings of winter wheat for harvesting in summer 2014 by 2.5 percent on the year to 3.13 million hectares, the German government said."Sowings went well and plants have developed positively in mild weather," one grains analyst said. "It is not surprising to see a continuation of the steady trend towards more wheat cultivation we have seen in recent years away from lower priced feed grains."The harvest outlook from today's standpoint is good but much colder weather is forecast in Germany from next week, with no snow cover because of the recent mild weather plants could be vulnerable to frosts."In third largest producer Britain wheat plantings are expected to rebound to around 2 million hectares after falling to 1.63 million hectares for the 2013 harvest, a fall caused by heavy rains wrecking autumn 2012 plantings."We would expect the area for the 2014 harvest to return to more normal levels, being around or just below the 2 million hectare mark," said Jack Watts, senior analyst with the Home-Grown Cereals Authority.Watts said wet British weather in recent weeks had caused some concern but nothing on the scale of the rains which damaged winter wheat sowings a year ago.Britain has experienced a mild winter so far, although temperatures were expected to drop in the coming week. "People are concerned if there's going to be a rapid drop in temperature," Watts said. "If that comes to fruition and it's for a prolonged period that may cause a little bit of concern."

Source - http://agri.eu/