Chairman of the Lithuanian Grain Growers Association Aušrys Macijauskas 15min claimed that the beginning of this year’s harvest in Lithuania is fixed on June 28, although usually the harvest starts later – from July 10.
As can be seen from the articles in the media, in the last five years, the harvest has started more than once in the second half of July.
“It started unusually early this year, but I wouldn’t say it’s a trend. It is very rare to have such early ones, but they have happened. And this does not mean that next year will start early – it may start later than usual. It has happened that the harvest starts only at the end of July, because it rains all July and it is impossible to get to the fields”, said A. Macijauskas.
And here is the senior researcher of the Lithuanian Center for Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, dr. Jūratė Ramanauskienė was surprised by such an early harvest: “From my work experience in the last 20 years, I can say that I do not remember such an early harvest. It has happened that we threshed around the middle of July – then we also thought that the harvest was early, but that it was at the end of June…”.
There are no statistics on when the harvest officially began in Lithuania, but the Lithuanian Center for Agricultural and Forestry Sciences records the beginning of the harvest of crops grown in its research fields. In the last decade, the earliest harvest in these fields started in 2021 – on July 12-14, and the latest – in 2017, when the crops began to be threshed only on August 4-7.
This year, as every year, the farmers of Suvalkija drove the first combine harvesters into the fields – but only those who grow winter barley.
Paulius Gvazdaitis, who grows this culture and is a farmer in Marijampolė municipality 15min he said following starting the harvest on Sunday – a couple of weeks earlier than usual.
Meanwhile, J.Ramanauskiene predicts that all winter crops will be threshed earlier than usual this year.
The weather and changed priorities were the reason
The main reason for the early harvest this year is the warm weather. According to A. Macijauskas, the warm spring and last week’s heat in Lithuania accelerated the maturity of plants.
Patricija Adamovič / BNS/Vacationers on Palanga beach this year
J.Ramanauskienė adds that diseases, for which this year is very favorable for spreading, might also have had an influence. “A large number of diseases slightly accelerates the maturation of plants, because the leaves affected by diseases die faster. But the main reason was the warm weather,” said a senior researcher at the Lithuanian Center for Agricultural and Forestry Sciences.
A. Macijauskas mentions another reason for the early harvest – the structure of plants grown in Lithuania is changing. Winter barley is the earliest to be cultivated, which in the past was not cultivated at all in Lithuania – the largest areas were occupied by rye. It is not for nothing that the last month of summer was named August – rye is threshed later these days.
“Why did we start growing winter barley?” Because varieties suitable for the Lithuanian climate have appeared and the demand for rye has decreased. People no longer want to eat black bread – rye had to be replaced with something. So people now think that black bread is made from rye, but it is actually baked from wheat and dyed black. If you eat black bread, it is not rye bread – bakers and supermarkets are simply deceiving you, read the labels”, explained A. Macijauskas.
Žygimantos Gedvilas/BNS photo/Bread
Spring lasts, autumn warms up
Although this year’s harvest is fixed very early, it would be hasty to draw conclusions regarding major changes in agriculture, according to my interlocutors.
However, J.Ramanauskienė names one trend: seasonal weather conditions are changing – as autumn progresses, the warm period lengthens, which means that sowing times may change.
“Let’s say we can delay the sowing of winter wheat – we used to start sowing winter wheat in the middle of September, but now it’s okay if we sow in the middle of October. As the autumn period warms up, later sowings pay off better and are more beneficial both in terms of diseases and pests,” observes an employee of the Lithuanian Center for Agricultural and Forestry Sciences.
And what kind of harvest can be expected this year, following starting the harvest so early? According to J. Ramanauskienė, the quality of the harvest depends on the weather conditions.
“For now, we are not predicting anything bad – we think that the harvest will be good,” says the interviewer.
Tomas Markelevičius / 15min photo/Grain fields
Paulius Gvazdaitis, a farmer from Suvalkija, is also optimistic, he likes the earlier harvest – “you can do more in time”, he says.
“But the earlier, the worse the harvest, because everything happens faster – when the plant has time, more grains ripen, larger ones are grown over a longer period of time, and nature was in a hurry this time. But still, the harvest this year is not bad”, concludes the farmer.
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2024-07-08 09:41:11
