Ag Weather Forum
Bryce Anderson DTN Ag Meteorologist and DTN Analyst

Monday 03/15/10
Ukraine Cold Spell Hurts Crops

Not all the international climate news is about warming. Ukraine has had some late-season cold wave issues.--Bryce

Poor weather hits Ukraine winter grain crops

KIEV, March 15 (Reuters) - Frost and ice have killed 1.6 percent of Ukrainian winter grain area as of March 11 compared to 0.3 percent a week earlier, Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted official data as showing on Monday.

The data also showed the area under ice crust rose to 9.1 percent from 7.2 percent.

Ice on Ukrainian field killed about one million hectares of winter crops in the 2007/08 season, causing a decrease in wheat crop to 13.7 million tonnes. Ukraine harvested 24.2 million tonnes of wheat in 2008 and 20.8 million in 2009.

The agency also said about 13.5 percent of the winter grain area, or 1.1 million hectares, were in poor state as of March 11 compared to 10.3 percent in late February.

The State Statistics Committee last year said farms had increased winter grain sowing area for 2010 to 8.6 million hectares or by 3.7 percent compared to 2009.

UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy last month said farms were likely to sow a total 16.145 million hectares to the 2010 grain harvest compared to 15.67 million a year earlier.

It also said cold weather across Ukraine was preventing farms from spring grain sowing and the pace of sowing was twice as low as it was in 2009.
Posted at 3:58PM CDT 03/15/10 by Bryce Anderson
Comments (3)
Bryce, you know that the best of the global warming believers would count this as proof that the world is getting warmer.
Posted by NATHAN CHESTER at 4:32PM CDT 03/17/10
Did anyone else hear Al Gore describe last weeks rain as possible proof of global warming? I also heard today that 3 state attorney's general are investigating him for racketeering under the Rico statute. Wonder if he will flee to the cooler climate of the Ukraine if he gets indicted?
Posted by Paul Beiser at 12:04PM CDT 03/18/10
It looks to me like the Gore RICO item is over 2 years old. I did a quick search and saw nothing about such a state atty general action. Do you know of a specific filing that has been done in this regard? If you have a link to a current item (March 1 2010 or later) that actually identifies SPECIFIC state attorney general filings against Mr. Gore under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, you are welcome to post it.
Posted by Bryce Anderson at 1:24PM CDT 03/18/10
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