Over the past month, the sowing campaign for winter cereals has been successfully completed on time in most of northern Europe, with good conditions for crop establishment, according to the latest EU MARS crop bulletin published this week.

Frequent rainfall in October slowed the progress of sowing in large parts of western, central and southeastern Europe.

However, drier conditions in November helped to recover sowing progress in the Benelux countries, as well as in France, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Croatia.

In Ireland and the United Kingdom, nearly 90% of the sowing took place in September and October, despite ground conditions being affected by frequent rain.

Eastern Europe

Abundant rainfall in eastern Czechia and Slovakia further delayed the sowing of winter crops and provided poor establishment conditions for crops already sown.

Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria also experienced significant delays due to abundant rainfall at the beginning of October.

However, drier than usual weather at the beginning of November, and the forecast for the coming week, may help to complete sowing.

The favourable weather conditions in November allowed the harvesting of summer crops to catch up in most regions

Sowing has generally progressed well in other parts of southern Europe.

Likewise, the favourable weather conditions in November allowed the harvesting of summer crops to catch up in most regions where delays were reported in October.

However, the exception is eastern Czechia and Slovakia, where abundant rainfall caused further delays to the harvesting of sugar beet and grain maize.

Oilseed rape

The oilseed rape sowing campaign was hampered in large parts of Europe. The area sown at European level is expected to be smaller than last year and the five-year average.

While northern Europe and Poland benefited from good conditions for sowing and emergence, substantial rainfall in the first half of October damaged parts of the fields due to waterlogging.