Harvesting is over in Békés County

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Winter wheat was sown on 107 thousand hectares, with an average yield of 4.5 tons, and 482 thousand tons harvested. 23 thousand tons of winter rapeseed, sown on almost 9700 hectares, was harvested, with 2.4 tons per hectare. According to farmers, the average yields are 2-3 tons per hectare lower than in previous years, and the purchase prices are also stagnant. Autumn rapeseed is sold for 170-190 thousand forints per ton, the purchase price of autumn barley is 63 thousand forints. A ton of winter wheat of feed quality costs 70 thousand forints, and food quality is 4-7 thousand forints higher, according to NAK data. According to Béla Barabás, secretary of the Békés County Farmers’ Association, the purchase price of wheat is increasing slightly, while that of other crops is stagnating.

According to experts, despite the rainfall, the drought situation has not passed, and corn has been damaged the most

According to József Bozó, vice-president of the NAK Békés County Directorate, the corn should now be 2.5-3 meters tall, and the ears should be at least 30-40 centimeters long, but “in many places the corn is only waist-high and only every third or fourth plant has appreciable ears”. An average yield of 3-5 tons per hectare is expected, but it is not excluded that a third of the fields will have zero yield. “It is certain that those farmers who did not irrigate will end up with a loss, and the majority cannot irrigate,” he said.

The recent storm damaged some of the sunflowers: the wind was able to get into the taller plants

Due to the lack of precipitation, the stems are not flexible enough, so they broke in several places, the plates are on the ground – it was said at the closing meeting of the harvest coordination committee. The precipitation that fell on the sunflowers last week can help the most to fill the grains. According to the vice president, this year the sunflower fields sown very early, in March, could have received the precipitation at the right time. About 20-30 percent of the fields are like this, the rest are weak, with tiny plates, and the expected results will not be there. “This year may not be the destruction of 2022, it is a little better than that,” said József Bozó. The Békés County Government Office received 1,658 damage reports, with more than 70 percent of all reports being drought damage, the NAK County Directorate informed MTI.

MTI