Drought drives Upper Austria harvest losses of up to 70%

Drought and prolonged dry weather have sharply reduced harvests for many farmers in Upper Austria, with late rainfall offering little relief, ORF reported on Sunday. In many cases, yields are expected to reach no more than half of last year’s levels.

Potatoes have been hit particularly hard, according to Ewald Mayr, head of Upper Austria’s fruit and vegetable growers. He said the crop had suffered not only from heat and drought but also from sunburn damage.

Farmer Harald Kitzberger, who farms fields from Hartkirchen in Eferding district to Leonding in Linz-Land district, expects yields to fall below 50 per cent. He also warned that wireworms, the hard, yellowish-brown larvae of click beetles, could further reduce the number of marketable potatoes.

Kitzberger’s operation is designed to store several thousand tonnes of potatoes. This year, he expects the storage facility to be less than half full.

Grassland has suffered most from the drought, said Michaela Langer-Weninger, Upper Austria’s agriculture councillor. Lower yields mean less winter feed for livestock, forcing farms either to buy additional feed or reduce their herds, she said. Both options would reduce farm incomes.

Franz Waldenberger, president of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, said farmers would have to adjust feed rations, including by using straw and other ingredients to make up for shortages.

Autumn crops such as grain maize, silage maize, pumpkins, sunflowers, soybeans and sugar beet were exposed to severe drought for longer than cereals harvested in summer. Their yields are estimated to be 50 to 70 per cent below last year’s levels.