On March 11-12, air temperatures became slightly lower than earlier in the month.
Cloudy weather dominated the country with almost daily insignificant precipitation occurring all over its territory except for the East. The average daily air temperature was within a range of +2.2 to +7.5 degrees C, i.e. 2.9-6.4 degrees above normal. On the warmest days the air temperature peaked at 8-15 C and the soil surface warmed to +17-25 C. In the coldest nights the air temperature bottomed out at 0-10 C with the soil surface cooling down to 1-5 C below zero.
This spring, winter rape resumed growth in early March, that is a month ahead of the multi-year average. As of the growth resumption moment the soil moisture reserves were estimated as mostly good – the only exception was the southern regions.
According to the Ag Ministry, farmers had fertilized winter rape on an area of 681 thousand ha (78%) as of March 17, against 439 thousand ha (64%) at the same time last year.
Winter rape was sown on an area of 899.2 thousand ha. 40.8% of rape plantings are in good condition. (UkrAgroConsult/Business World Magazine)
