HomeDomestic NewsDanish Farmers Face Challenging Harvest Season with Record Rainfall in 2024

Danish Farmers Face Challenging Harvest Season with Record Rainfall in 2024

This year, Danish agriculture is facing one of its most challenging harvest seasons in the past decade. The heavy rainfall that has persisted from July 2023 to June 2024 is complicating farmers’ efforts to harvest their crops. This wet period is the rainiest ever recorded over a 12-month span. As a result, this harvest is among the poorest the agricultural sector has experienced in many years.

Kristoffer Boye Larsen, a crop production consultant at Velas, the largest advisory firm for farmers in Denmark, explains the challenges: “Rapeseed is generally showing poor yields this year due to the wet winter. Wheat yields vary from mediocre to poor, although wheat can tolerate some water as long as the sun follows suit,” he states.

Spring crops have also been affected, as they have been sown significantly later than usual. Many farmers had to wait until May to plant, shortening the growing season and delaying the harvest by about a month compared to normal timelines.

Asbjørn Børsting, director of Danish Grain and Feed (Dansk Korn og Foder), agrees with these observations. He notes significant variations in yields, particularly for spring crops and barley. “In many areas, planting was significantly delayed, and fields that were sown early were heavily impacted by subsequent rainfall,” he comments. This has resulted in anything but a normal season, with substantial local discrepancies in yields.

Although the harvest is not yet fully completed, the expected overall yield for grain in Denmark is projected to be between 7.6 and 7.8 million tons. This is a relatively small harvest, only surpassed in negative terms by the drought year of 2018 and the poor harvest year of 2023, which yielded 7.1 million tons.

However, the final economic impact on farmers will depend on the global market grain prices. Peter Nyegaard Nissen, sector chief for Crop Production at Agriculture & Food (Landbrug & Fødevarer), advises farmers to save during good years to withstand challenging periods.

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