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Farmers' alarm: Must rain within a week
Matthias Kjellman
Published 2024-05-31 17.25
It has been an unusually sunny and dry month of May.
The harvests are at risk of being affected if it does not rain soon.
- It needs to rain soon. We have a certain amount of stress in us now because it was such a bad year last year, says grain farmer Fredrik Andersson.
Quick version
The warm weather has been long-awaited for many Swedes who fought through the long winter.
- The heat has facilitated spring farming and for the first fodder harvest in the southern parts of the country, says Lars-Erik Lundkvist, economic policy expert at LRF, to TT.
Crops that were sown last autumn are still alive and hay, such as hay, is currently coping with the rain from April.
But the fact that May has been unusually dry may have a negative impact. Local and occasional rain showers do not help, and if the drought persists, there may be problems according to Lundkvist.
He says that more rain is needed Within a week or so and that otherwise there will be a poorer harvest - especially for spring-sown grain. This concerns, for example, barley and oats, but the fodder harvest can also be affected.
"On the toes"
Grain farmer Fredrik Andersson agrees. He lives in Arboga and threshes 520 hectares a year.
- So far it's not too late, but it needs to rain soon. The bad last year means that you are a little extra on your toes. If we had come from a better year, it would not have been as nervous now, he says.
He is referring to the conditions we had last year with first a very dry period and then a very wet period that lasted from late summer and throughout the fall - with several floods.
This means that the water has not had time to drain away and thus hardens the soil, which then becomes drier once it dries.
- Because it was so wet during the autumn and all the way until the drought came in May, the soil becomes very hard and compact. This means that it dries out faster and holds less water than if it had been fluffy and nice. It is an aggravating circumstance. The paradox is that what was too much water for a long time means that there is too little water now.
This led to a low harvest in the spring and difficult harvesting conditions in the autumn, which meant that the farmers did not get the crop to the right quality.
- It was the maximum bad combination. Last year's combination is one you don't want and luckily it's rare, he says.
Soil drainage is important
With climate change, however, we will see more and more years with either very dry periods or very wet ones. It will be problematic for agriculture, says Fredrik Andersson.
- We need to jointly review how the soil drainage works. How do we work with it together to deal with these floods that affect the whole society? We need a good working way to get rid of water otherwise it will lead to big problems.
He says that it is a huge project because it affects the entire landscape and society at large.
- It is at the highest level of political decisions and investigations to gather knowledge. Academic knowledge and prudence in general are needed to really lay out a plan for how things should change, says Fredrik Andersson.
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