David's Digest

The evidence of April's drought is as clear in northern Germany as it is in Britain. Most fields of winter barley feature two crops. The first is the one made up of tillers that survived the drought and will soon be ready for harvest. The second is composed of green tillers that have grown since the May rains and this will make for a mixed sample off the combine.
This was no surprise to members of the FW party touring Germany. Most have similar crops at home. They shrugged their shoulders and resolved to take the earliest crop when it is fit and hope to dress the green grains out in order to improve what will be an untidy sample. The recent sharp increase in values will help to pay for the exercise and reduce the frustration.
Generally, however, crops look very well over here. Winter wheats on good land obviously came through the drought pretty well. Rye and Triticale on light land survived well too. All have benefited from the rain since and the weather has continued unsettled while we have been here.
But perhaps the most impressive are crops of fodder maize, most of which are already a meter tall, and sugar beet whose leaves clearly met across the rows a couple of weeks ago and which do not feature the "hen and chickens" problems so common at home. German growers must have managed to conserve their seedbed moisture better than we did and achieved even germination. Beet growers on the study tour were rather envious. And most of the German farmers we have talked to are feeling more optimistic than for several years.