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Adverse weather impacting some key global ag regions

The lead atmospheric scientist with Nutrien Ag Solutions says he’s keeping a close eye on several key agricultural regions across the globe.

Eric Snodgrass says the European Wheat Belt has seen some adversity.

“June was incredibly hot and dry through much of Europe, and it still remains that way in parts of France.”  He says, “Forecast right now is for pretty heavy rains from Germany to Poland, getting over to parts of Ukraine.  Russia, the Wheat Belt, was cool and wet for most of June, while central Europe was so hot, dry, and now they’ve kind of flipped the script.”

He tells Brownfield that China’s southern region has also faced drought, but…

“We don’t grow a lot of crops that compete with that area.”  He says, “We care more about the North China Plain, or the Manchurian Plain, and I just looked yesterday at the NDVI values for those areas, so that’s a crop health indicator, and it’s the highest it’s been in 25 years.”

Snodgrass says South America’s second corn crop harvest continues at a brisk pace thanks to cooperative weather.

AUDIO: Eric Snodgrass – Nutrien Ag Solutions