- Title: Unceasing rain destroys crops on German fields
- Date: 7th August 2023
- Summary: UNNA, GERMANY (AUGUST 7, 2023) (REUTERS) (PARTLY MUTE) VARIOUS OF DRONE SHOT OF FIELDS VARIOUS OF CLOSE WHEAT WATER DROPS ON PLANT FARMER THOMAS DOERING WALKING OVER HIS DRENCHED FIELD, SHOWING PLANTS DOERING DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (German) FARMER THOMAS DOERING, SAYING: "As we can see here, the harvest is not happening at all at the moment. We started about four weeks ago with barley and the very first wheat. That worked very well, we had good yields, we were able to thresh. It was still dry. And now we have had to stop the harvest for almost four weeks because it has been raining without interruption. If we look here, the plants are falling over, going to the ground, partly taking root again and we don't know whether we will be able to harvest all the parts of the field." (SOUNDBITE) (German) FARMER THOMAS DOERING, WHILE SHOWING OF HARVEST, SAYING: "You can see here that these are the ears that have been lying on the ground, that have been permanently exposed to moisture. The grains thatis still on the ear are already starting to grow again. They turn green and are basically can´t be threshed or used." RAIN FALLING IN PUDDLE ON FIELD PUDDLE NEXT TO PLANTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) FARMER THOMAS DOERING, SAYING: "We had the first heavy thunderstorms at the end of June, with heavy rain and very, very strong winds. Areas completely fell over. Some of them can no longer be harvested at all. This means that on some areas we will have a near total loss. We are still considering to use them for biogas plants. But we can no longer harvest the grain there, we can no longer thresh it for animal feed, and we can no longer use it to make baked goods, to make bread. The baking qualities of those plants are lost across the board. This means that in our region we assume that we can almost no longer deliver baking qualitz wheat." VARIOUS OF PUDDLES IN FIELD DOERING HOLDING PLANT HARVEST MACHINE IN BARN AS IT RAINS DOERING WALKING OVER PUDDLES IN FIELD
- Embargoed: 21st August 2023 12:43
- Keywords: agriculture climate harvest rain
- Location: UNNA, GERMANY
- City: UNNA, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Environment,Europe,Precipitation
- Reuters ID: LVA001285307082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Weeks of heavy rain and thunderstorms are interfering with the harvest of German farmers. Farmer Thomas Doering in Western Germany is afraid of a "near total loss" of some areas, as on the wheat fields in his region, harvesting came to a halt almost four weeks ago.
Some of the grain, Doering said to Reuters on Monday (August 7), has started to sprout on the ears, making it unsuitable for use in animal feed or for flour production. While some of the plants might still be usable as fuel in biogas plants, Doering says he assumes that he won't be able to offer baking wheat in his region. Overall, Doering expects harvest losses of 10 to 15 percent.
(Production: Stephan Nitschke, Erol Dogrudogan, Oliver Denzer, Anna Dittrich) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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