The favorable weather of the current week in the Lviv region intensified the sowing of early spring grain crops
Farms of all categories have sown more than 3.9 thousand hectares of early grain spring crops (8.8% of the projected area). The drivers of sowing are spring wheat and barley, their share is 84% of the total sown area. In addition, farmers began to sow oats.
According to operational information of the department, the projected area of early grain and leguminous crops in farms of all categories in the 2024 season is 44.1 thousand hectares, including 14.5 thousand hectares in the commercial sector.
As of March 28, in the commercial sector, sowing of early spring crops was started in all districts of the region. A total of 2.4 thousand hectares (17% of the projected area) were sown, in particular: spring wheat – 1.7 thousand hectares, spring barley – 0.6 thousand hectares, oats – 0.1 thousand hectares. 90% of the sown area is in the Lviv and Chervonograd districts, whose farmers sowed 1.2 and 1 thousand hectares, respectively.
“The sowing season of early spring grain crops in Lviv Oblast began more than three weeks ago, and areas were sown in fragments, where soil conditions allowed. In terms of sowing rates, even with adverse weather conditions, we are ahead of last year’s figures by more than 50%, following the calendar sowing dates,” commented Tetyana Hetman, Director of the Department of Agro-Industrial Development.
We remind you that early spring cereals are cold-resistant crops, and the terms of their sowing and seed germination should be taken into account.
According to the observations of the Western Interregional Scientific Center of the Institute of Agriculture of the Carpathian Region of the National Academy of Sciences, sowing of early grain agricultural crops is carried out at a soil temperature at the depth of seed wrapping of at least 2°C, although germination will be slow in such conditions.
At a soil temperature at a depth of 5°C, the first sprouts appear after 20 days, at 8°C – after 13 days; 10°C – after 9 days; 15°С – after 7 days. The optimum temperature is 15‒17 °С. In addition, active germination of seeds occurs in the presence of sufficient moisture in the soil. Therefore, agrarians are recommended to sow spring crops in the shortest time of sowing, since delaying the sowing time by 1 day leads to a shortage of 0.5-1.0 t/ha of grain, and in a dry spring, these indicators increase by 2-3 times.