Leu-AGRO News Update on Russian Agriculture by Martin Leu !!!

Leu-AGRO News Update on Russian Agriculture by Martin Leu !!!

Spring Seeding – 2021 started later than usual in the South of Russia, because of poor weather conditions. In the Central Black Earth it looks like ahead of the usual Springfield Work and Seeding Operation.

Today, Martin Leu, founder and CEO of Leu-AGRO Group Switzerland and Volga Baikal AGRO LLC., its subsidiary in the Russian Federation, is pleased to share his point of view on the start of the seeding campaign:

• Martin, what do you think, will there be some affects to the 2021 Crop and possible yields?
• A lot will depend on the weather from here on, local Agriculture Administration assessed the condition of winter crops. According to the correspondent information the Winter Wheat Crop is in satisfactory condition, winter crops are being fertilized now in all Region, with about 67% done (+/- 13.0 million ha). Regional farms hope to help plants enter the active phase of vegetation as a good moisture reserves in the fields are now towards optimal with the resent snow and rain.
• As explained by regional Ministry of Agriculture, due to the dry weather conditions in summer and fall 2020, the moisture reserves in the arable land were low, so lot of winter crops went into winter on a slow development and weak stage. This condition was aggravated by the ice crust formed in winter due to sudden temperature fluctuations. Nevertheless, a forecast for the reseeding of problem crops has already been drawn up. According to our information replanting will be carried out on the Winter Wheat area in some parts of the Central Black Earth Region, not all Region are affected the same, so an accumulated figure cannot be given at the present stage.
• Personally, I do not think more than 5% of the Total Winter Wheat area (+/- 1.0 million ha) will be lost due to this harsh climatic condition. Most of this Cropping area will be reseeded with spring wheat and barley.
• I am greatly confident it will not affect the crop yield and harvest too much. In the last weeks, some good Rains have restored some of the missing Soil Moisture and looking good for now, with some timely Precipitation I believe Russia still has the potential to have a good 2021 Grain Crop, including a Total Wheat Crop more than 80.0 mil ton.
• Spring Seeding as mentioned before are in some parts ahead and some are slightly behind, some Soil Temperature are holding back the fast pass of seeding and planting, so the sowing delay itself is not critical at the present time.
• However, some risks always exist. First, later seeding shortens the growing season. That can be critical for some of the crops. Additionally, to say, the crops will get ripe later. Therefore, you must be prepared for such situations and make sure to control the cropping development.

• Martin, can you give us any examples from your fields? From your partners?
• Please, look atthese pictures: these pictures are from Farms we know and we work with. As you can see, the Winter Wheat looks well, it does not mean all look like this but a good portion of it.

We believe in timely Fieldwork, do the work properly, seeding is the most critical time, if this goes wrong you have lost most possibilities for a great crop, but if you do everything correct and your best ability there sure is a possibility to have an above average crop in 2021.

Wishing everybody a safe Seeding Campaign and a great 2021 Crop !

With best regards,

Martin Leu, Founder and CEO of Leu – AGRO Group Switzerland and Volga Baikal AGRO LLC

Stay with Volga Baikal AGRO !!!  Together – Ahead !!!