The heat will not have a critical effect on early crops, but will not help late crops

The heat does not critically affect the harvest of early cereals in Ukraine, but it is dangerous for late cereals, sunflowers and soybeans. According to the Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Taras Vysotskyi, early crops are now being actively harvested and the average yield for early crops is 37 quintals per hectare.

As for late crops, the extent of the negative effect from the current heat will depend on what the weather will be like in the coming weeks, because now is the peak of flowering, pollination of the respective crops and their growth. And what will be the final situation already from September, it will be possible to make a forecast in the second half of August.

It is already known that the heat in Ukraine threatens the sunflower crop. In particular, the agrarian holding "Prometheus" noted that during the whole of last week, abnormal heat reigned in Ukraine, from which the southern region of the country suffered the most. In this regard, Prometheus Group, whose land areas are located in the Mykolayiv region, are concerned about the negative impact of high air temperature and drought on sunflower crops.

In turn, meteorologists believe that the agro-meteorological conditions for the formation of a harvest of late crops in Ukraine have deteriorated to the point of being unfavorable. After all, starting from the end of June, in many regions of Ukraine, the development, strengthening and spread of air drought began, which later combined with soil drought and as of July 15 covered a significant part of the areas with late agricultural crops. According to an expert assessment, the area affected by drought may be about 30-50% of late crops. As a result of the extremely high level of average daily temperatures and the rapid accumulation of effective heat (its amount since the beginning of the growing season significantly exceeds the average long-term indicators and is one of the highest for the entire period of observations), a reduction in the interphase periods of the development of soybeans, sunflowers, and corn is noted, which can lead to premature completion of vegetation.