Heavy rains destroy plots, damage uncertain – Crop Tour Weather – Week 18

Crop round Weather – Week 18

The day before yesterday at 1:30 pm -Jesse Turinga

The wet period continues to frustrate spring work. This time there were very heavy rains that sometimes resulted in a month’s worth of rain in a short period of time in different areas, especially the south of the Netherlands. It is difficult to determine the exact damage at the moment, as much of it has been planted or has just been planted by farmers.

Things have been particularly bad in South Holland since Thursday afternoon. Heavy rain (thunderstorms) including hailstones entered Limburg from the southeast and moved very slowly to the west and northwest of our country. At the regional level, differences in rainfall are sometimes very large due to the intensity of rainfall. The matter does not stop there, as the precipitation has not stopped yet and the showers will remain active until the end of Friday afternoon, especially in the south of the Netherlands.

More than monthly rainfall
According to weather stations, Limburg province received the largest amount of rain with more than 40 mm, AgroExact showed. Locally, 70 mm fell, more than the average rainfall in May. East and North Brabant also suffered a lot in terms of rainfall. This was precisely where the heavy rains dumped most of the rainfall, and where the rain persisted, because the local variations are so large. Areas of Utrecht and even southern Flevoland also suffered heavy rainfall, causing land to be (temporarily) submerged.

Precipitation map until 08:00 Friday morning. Source: Agro Exact Rainfall map in the Netherlands until Friday morning 08:10. Source: vwk.com

“I was already with the shovel.”
The large amount of water comes after a short period in which a lot of land work has been done. Farmers in the south were still busy planting and cultivating plots of land until the last minute yesterday when the rain fell. A lot of rain was expected, but how much rain will actually fall is always a guess.

Onion farmer Hubert Linders from Niederwirt in Limburg says more than 40 mm of rain has fallen so far and it is still raining in the morning. He just planted his Crop Tour plot with onions this week. “So it’s going to rain until the afternoon. I’ve been carrying the shovel for a while. We just planted here this week, so I think the ground will close up soon again after all this rain. For most of the country it won’t be too bad because of the damage, but areas “The final one, where there was a lot of traffic, is in a less good condition, but we will see.” In addition, Linders points out that compared to other years, little has happened for agricultural work this season. Now with the rain falling over the past 24 hours and what’s yet to come, it looks like spring work can’t continue until mid-May at the earliest.

Cloudbursts
In Lotte Steinbusch, a potato farmer in Vorendal, Limburg, more than 60 mm fell in a short time. The damage to crops remains unclear. Southern Flevoland, which was relatively spared Thursday night and Friday, also had to deal with heavy rain this morning (Friday). In the area around Zewolde and Almere, more than 35 mm fell in a short time. Potato farmer Dan Tapp from Elst, Gelderland, says between 19 and 30mm also fell on him.

The Crop Tour plot in Lepelstraat (North Brabant) was also planted this week and received a significant amount of rain. Water can be seen between the tracks. In all, nearly 25 millimeters fell, according to onion farmer David de Wit’s weather station. He points out that the rainfall intensity was not too bad, especially if you compare it to other regions. “It’s been raining a lot here, but I thought it would be worse with the peak rainfall. It wasn’t too bad. With the AgroExact weather station you can see the rainfall every 10 minutes which was 2mm.”

“I think we’ve done a reasonably good job, considering other areas, but more will go down in the coming days. I’m glad we have the onions in stock, because it will be a while before we can hit the ground again,” says Dee. Fayt: “We should have farmed then. Maybe it wasn’t necessary.”

Jesse Turinga

Jesse is an editor at Boerenbusiness and focuses mainly on the arable sector, including grains and onions. He also follows the fertilizer market closely. Jesse also works on an arable farm in Groningen where seed potatoes are the main branch.

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