Spring agricultural work is in full swing across Estonia but farmers say the weather is erratic and spring is late. While some say the weather is too wet, others are facing dried-out fields.
Work in the fields started on March 20. Tuesday's "Aktuaalne kaamera" visited the winter wheat fields in Järva County, central Estonia.
"Spring still seems to be late. The weather is very changeable – 15 degrees one day, 5 degrees the next, cold, snow, flurries, this stops work again," agronomist Toivo Lauk told AK.
The spring plowing is at an end, only fields with bad conditions too bad for tractors are left. Urmas Kütt, a tractor driver with 44 years of experience, said he has never worked in such wet conditions.
While winter rye, barley and wheat have withstood the winter weather, more than 500 hectares of winter rapeseed have dried up. The fields will now be plowed and sown with summer rapeseed.
"It was fated to suffer the cold, wind-chill of early January, with temperatures as low as -35 degrees in places. At the time, when the cold came over, there was no snow cover," Lauk explained.
Private farming company OÜ Mägede's winter crops survived the winter. The fields have been fertilized and peas have been sown.
However, owner Raido Allsaar has also accrued losses of €400,000 as 300 hectares of rapeseed has withered and needs to be replanted.
"You can expect to survive one year, but last year, due to bad weather, 100 hectares of summer oilseed rape died, and this year now 300 hectares of winter oilseed rape. I don't want to say what this summer might bring, but hope springs eternal," Allsaar said.
Source - https://news.err.ee
