KIEV/MOSCOW, Jan 10 (Reuters) – A substantial snow layer has protected Ukrainian and Russian winter crops from severe frosts which came this weekend, analyst and weather forecasters said on Tuesday. Temperatures in most Ukrainian regions fell substantially to -13 to -20 Celsius in the last four days, but at the same time, snowfalls occurred across the country.
“Temperatures at the tillering node depth did not drop to critical values because snow cover is thick enough to protect winter cereals,” analyst UkrAgroConsult said in a statement, adding that the average height of snow cover ranges from five-15 cm to 25-30 cm, depending on the region.
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The consultancy last week said that an expected sharp fall in temperatures could damage the country’s winter grain crops because of a lack of snow cover on the fields.
In Russia’s Central region the temperature fell to up to -39 C, but a snow layer of more than 50 cm (20 inches) prevented any crop damage, weather forecasters said.
“So far there is no reason to say that the frost could have damaged winter crops. We believe that there were satisfactory conditions for crops,” said Anna Strashnaya, head of the agricultural department at state weather forecaster Hydrometcentre.
Ukrainian farmers have increased the area sown for the 2017 harvest to about 8.1 million hectares from 7.8 million hectares a year earlier, mostly due to a higher area under winter rape.
