What grain quality does the first crop of barley and rapeseed predict?
Observing the excellent formation of crop in spring it seemed to forecast a large quantity of grain and great quality this year. Can such forecasts be confirmed by the first crop in the elevators of “Achema” and what impact did the crop experience from the storms in Lithuania, these were the questions we asked the Head of Grain Department of “Agrochema” Renatas Žeknys.
“This year is truly exceptional due to the very early harvest time; we have received the first grain in our elevators by the 1st of July. Our elevators have not received the new crop of grain during the first week of July since 2020. The first rapeseed was also received a week earlier than usually,” noted the Head of Grain Department.
The quality of the first barley crop was average: proteins approximately 11.2 percent, humidity – 13.7 percent, bulk density (rate) – 60.8 kg/hl. Winter barley protein amount varies from 9 to 13 percent, bulk density – from 54 to 65 kg/hl, thus, the results are similar to those of the previous year, grain humidity – from 11.4 to 17.6 percent.
“The new crop of winter barley is approximately 5.5–7 t/ha, whereas that of hybrid winter barley is about a ton higher in comparison to the ordinary barley. The barley has sufficient amount of proteins, but in some instances, it lacks bulk weight, the grains are not thin, to sum it up – the first qualitative parameters of barley are not joyful,” commented R. Žeknys. The situation with rapeseed is better: the oil this year is very good and the quantity is 1 percent higher than the last year. Nevertheless, the rapeseed is almost 2.5 percent dryer in comparison to the ones received during the first week of delivery last year.
“The farmers delivering winter rapeseed to us commented that this year the impact of the species upon the productivity is evident. Therefore, the crop of grain grown applying the same technology differs: for some species the crop is up to 3 t/ha, for others – more than 4 t/ha,” recounted Renatas Žeknys.
The harvesting of wheat – the main grain in Lithuania – is also starting this week. Approximately 80 percent of Lithuanian grain export is composed of wheat, 13 percent – rapeseed, 5 percent – barley.
“For the past several years we have witnessed that the quality of wheat in Lithuania is not changing, we are becoming the exporters of average quality grain, therefore, in the world grain market our main competitors are such countries as Poland, Germany, Latvia, Russian Federation. The quality of Lithuanian grain mostly meets the needs of Africa,” – as summarised by the grain expert from “Agrochema”. “The storms we had with heavy rainfall can deteriorate the quality of the grain even further. The research shows that before harvesting due to the rainfall the ferments become more active, for example, alfa amylase, which in turn destroys starch and deteriorates the quality of flour. Due to that the amount of gluten can decrease from 0.5 to 1 percent.”
Nevertheless, the current data is only the first quality indicator of the crop this year we will be able to draw the final conclusions in September.
