Not so much highlights as lowlights!
Just read a report that the average wheat yield in Romania is going to be below 1,500 kg/ha. What a contrast to north-west Europe as this is all drought related. I have heard as low as 500 kg/ha. Typically the Government is only talking about helping those who have crop insurance, not having worked out that no one can afford to pay the premiums, 50% subsidy of otherwise! At least in the bad old days pre-1989 they the country had 3.2 million hectares irrigated. This has nearly all been destroyed since!
We are having 35C predicted for the next week and that means we are seeing yield disappearing fast, a pity as we at least had something half decent. Now just hoping we can secure our own winter feed supplies for the buffalo. Thankfully the support side is showing signs of kicking in and this may well compensate us for the losses from not having crop to sell - a pity as prices are beginning to look crazy.
The real downside of this is that I hear of people only receiving £50/head when slaughtering their cows. A combination of no fodder for the coming winter, unable to meet minimum hygiene standards, producing micro-quantities of milk, being too small by far to invest and thinking that they can cash in on selling their newly allocated quota. The only question is just how many cows are going to die this autumn, probably not an insignifcant part of the national herd.
Overall a real disaster for a country that should first be an agricultural nation!