July Crop Travel in Poland Revealed Good Conditions for Autumn Sown Crops;
Drought Reduced Yields For Summer Crops

During early July members of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) traveled through Poland meeting with various agriculture industry professionals, and toured farms, and assessed crop conditions.  This report is a summary of the trip, including observations and photographs, and estimates from USDA's August World Agriculture Supply and Demand release.

Crop Estimates
Poland, with an estimated 2008/09 grain crop of 25.7 million tons is the European Union’s (EU) third largest grain producer.  While Poland's total cereals production is far behind the leaders France at 68.0 million tons, and Germany at 47.7 million, Poland is comparable to the United Kingdom (23.2 million), Spain (22.4), and Italy (21.2).  Poland’s major grain crops are wheat and mixed grains, but also produces lesser amounts of barley, rye, corn, and oats.  USDA's August 2008 release estimates Poland’s 2008/09 wheat production at 8.4 million tons, 0.1 million higher than last year.  Mixed grains is estimated at 7.8 million tons, while barley production is estimated at 3.4 million, rye production at 3.2 million, corn at 1.7 million, and oats at 1.2 million.

Polish Agriculture
There are about 2.5 million farmers (of 38 million total population) in Poland with one or more hectares. Of this number, 1.5 million farmers receive subsidies and 0.8 million produce commodities for the market.   While not the intention of the government, the subsidy given to small land owners is a disincentive for him to sell his land to entities attempting to assemble larger, economically viable parcels.  The average farm size in Poland is about 7 hectares but size varies greatly depending upon the history of the region.  Areas that are in the previously German-occupied west tend to be much larger than the Soviet-influenced eastern lands. Poland’s grain and rapeseed crops are not irrigated.  More than half of the Polish grain crop is used on farm, particularly rye, triticale, and mixed grains, with less than 40 percent of the grain being sold to the market. Roughly 4 million tons of wheat and 1 million tons of rye are used for milling purposes.

Spring Dryness
Much of Poland received little rainfall during the critical spring growing period during May and June. At that time, there was widespread concern for Poland's crops because several factors intensified the drought's destructive potential, including: Its severity as some areas received less than one inch of rain in six weeks, its extent which included most of north, central, and western Poland, and its timing which occurred during one of the most water-dependent periods - spring.  Interestingly however, crop travel revealed yield damage to autumn-sown crops such as rapeseed, wheat, rye, and triticale to be minimal in the drought areas.  However, spring sown crops such as oats and spring barley appeared to have suffered significantly.  Corn, planted last in spring, is also likely to have suffered from spring dryness, but during early July the crop was still at an early stage of development, making it difficult to assess damage.  Rainfall returned to normal levels during summer, likely benefiting corn yields.  Early season soil moisture likely carried the winter crops through the worst part of the drought with minimal losses, while the short roots of the spring-sown crops were not able to tap into the subsurface moisture, thereby; yield suffered.

Grain Crops
The category comprising “mixed grains” includes both triticale as well as combined grain mixtures grown together.  Triticale is a cross between rye and wheat.  It was developed for Polish conditions and therefore it is suitable for cold winters and sandy soils common to this area of northeast Europe.  The other component in the “mixed grain” category includes actual grain mixtures which are grown together in the same field and meant to be used on-farm. This mixture is typically comprised of spring wheat and (spring) oats.  A considerable number of rye fields had lodging problems, however, according to local experts this is a normal occurrence because of the length of the rye plant.  Oats, planted very early in spring (typically in March), grow well in Poland's sandy soil but this year appeared to be the crop most damaged by drought because of the timing of the dryness.

Corn Production
With the advent of short season varieties, corn production, has increased from 0.2 million tons in 1995/96 to 1.7 million in 2008/09.  With ideal weather, production reached 2.3 million tons in 2004/05.  Corn plantings have recently replaced sugar beet area as the EU has reduced sugar subsidies.  Much of Poland's corn crop, particularly in the north, is cut for silage and not used for grain.  In the south where grain corn is dominant, the corn borer pest is also present, reducing yields by an estimated 10 percent. Corn is typically planted around the end of April when soil temperature reaches 10° Celsius. 

Rapeseed
Rapeseed is Poland’s primary and almost exclusive oilseed crop.  Area and production had been increasing in recent years but leveled off in 2008/09 when an increase in grain prices gave wheat a competitive edge. The country’s 2008/09 crop is estimated at 2.0 million tons from 0.75 million hectares.  Polish rapeseed accounts for about 11 percent of the EU’s total. The crop is predominantly autumn-sown, but there are usually re-sown rapeseed fields following particularly harsh winters.  Rapeseed and wheat are typically planted on the best soils, but rapeseed area is more limited because its rotation should maintain a minimum of three years between rapeseed crops.  The crop's area potential in Poland is expected to be capped at about 1.0 million hectares due to the crop's constraints and soil conditions.  Rapeseed is also the first crop sown in fall, and must be planted by the end of August in order to have sufficient growth before winter dormancy. 

The 2007/08 crop (harvested in the summer of 2007) did well despite a hard freeze that occurred during flowering in early May.  The surprising resilience of the 2007/08 crop was due to the long flowering period of rapeseed.  Although the flowers that were blooming died when the temperatures dropped to -5° C in May 2007, rapeseed plants can flower for as long as four weeks.  In addition, buds that would normally have been aborted, because the plant produces extra buds, became pod-bearing flowers.  After the temperature moderated, these later-blooming, undamaged buds flowered, preventing rapeseed yields from falling much lower.  Recently, stronger plant varieties and less severe winters have decreased winterkill and improved yields. According to one farmer, the worst case scenario for Poland’s rapeseed crop would be if winter temperatures fell to -10° C for 5 days with no snow cover.   Observed just before harvest, a number of the rapeseed fields had been defoliated. Typically, rapeseed oil processed for food stays in Poland while rapeseed oil for industrial purposes is exported to Germany for biodiesel production.

Crop Travel Pictures: