Winter crops are generally in good shape and well developed in the EU due to the mild winter conditions, according to the European Commissions crop monitoring service Mars.
It says, in general, prospects for the new season are promising.
Since the beginning of February, southern Spain and Portugal have been facing a rain deficit.
This comes at a moment of increasing water demand as crop canopies are reaching maximum expansion.
Meanwhile, Northern Italy has experienced a rainfall surplus since mid-February.
A similar situation is found in Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro, where a significant rainfall surplus has been recorded since mid-January and winter crops are locally suffering from water logging; possible impacts will be visible in the coming weeks.
Eastern European countries (Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova) and Turkey experienced a milder-than-usual end to the winter.
This thermal anomaly is not critical per-se, but prompted the de-hardening of crops, thus making them vulnerable to possible late frost-kill damages.
Meanwhile, here in Ireland winter crops are at normal growth stages and all regions report lower than normal plant counts due to the extreme wet over the winter, according to Teagasc’s latest crop update.
It says a significant proportion of growers are now deciding on whether or not to re-drill fields or parts of fields.
Virtually no spring crops have been drilled to date but lighter soils are likely to be drilled this week.
Teagasc says that seedbed preparation, seed and fertiliser strategies need careful planning to ensure optimum establishment this spring.
