More and more farmers sow extra spring wheat

Here and there there are farmers with us who now opt for it, but they have little illusions. In Poperinge, a farmer sowed eight hectares last week. It may not be too bad towards the end of the summer, but Belgian grain will always be a minuscule fraction of what is needed.

Farmer Filip Rosseel from Poperinge has sown a field with spring wheat. The proceeds will soon be processed into animal feed, such as 90 percent of all grain in our country. Like many farmers, Filip is also concerned, because grain will soon become very expensive. “Of course we have sown a lot of wheat to keep stock. Because we also have a lot of animals here in the Westhoek. They will also have to take feed in the coming year. We try to respond to that.”

With its gigantic acreage, Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. Everyone knows that what we produce here in terms of grain is just a trifle. “I have now planted 8 hectares here. If we get 10 tons per hectare out of that, that’s 80 tons that we will harvest, hopefully at a good price.”

But Filip Rosseel is also a chicken farmer and soon thousands of chickens will eat 30 tons of grain in one week. Grain that will be expensive by then. At agricultural advice center Inagro in Roeselare they try to advise what farmers are doing best. Bram Devisch, grain expert at Inagro Roeselare: “In agriculture there is always a delay effect. We only see whether it is a good decision at the end of the season. There are so many factors that influence a successful harvest. “