In April, a regional rainfall deficit of up to 85 percent was recorded. The Chamber of Agriculture warns of crop failures. The situation is also tense in Lower Austria.
Agriculture theme image APA / Comyan / Roland Schlager
The ongoing drought is having dramatic effects in Carinthia. In April, a regional rainfall deficit of up to 85 percent was recorded, representatives of the Carinthian Chamber of Agriculture said at a press conference on Wednesday. If there were no heavy rains – up to 50 liters per square meter – in the next ten days, a crop loss of 20 to 70 percent is already expected.
Although the sky over the dry fields at Zollfeld, where the press conference took place, was cloudy on Wednesday – the expected rain, if it actually occurred, would only be a drop in the ocean. Or, as the President of the Chamber of Agriculture, Siegfried Huber, put it: “We often have a situation like this with long-lasting drought in late summer – but in my 31 years as a farmer, I can’t remember anything like this being so dry so early in the year.” None of his colleagues in the chamber have ever experienced anything like this.
In some places the first grass cutting ever failed. There is drought insurance from Austrian Hail Insurance, which covers outages. But: “We are running out of feed. I fear that there will be more emergency sales of cattle.” The drought is so drastic that springs in the Lavanttal, for example, are already drying up: “We no longer have a water supply in some meadows.” In many places, the fire brigade transports water to supply the animals. This can also be seen in large areas of water – the water level in the Bleistätter Moor on Lake Ossiach is 50 centimeters below the normal level.
“We have massive failures when cutting the grass for the first time, 50 to 80 percent. But if we mow now and it doesn’t rain, the second cut will also be canceled,” says Huber. The corn is currently germinating, but is drying out in the ground. In some cases the sowing would have to be postponed. In addition, expensive mineral fertilizer that has already been applied cannot develop its effect due to the drought. If there is no precipitation in the next two or three weeks, the worst case scenario would be that there would be no harvest at all in some places. It is recommended to organize food for the animals early. And for the grass cuttings, it is important to harvest the little fodder that is now on the meadows soon.
As an immediate measure, the Chamber of Agriculture is demanding that the 9,000 hectares of biodiversity areas that farmers in Carinthia are not allowed to cultivate or only to a limited extent be released. “This is our approach to such an extreme drought. What’s important to us now is the feed and not the premium we collect,” says Huber. That’s not easy because it’s a… EUdirective – but discussions at political level are already underway.
The conclusion of the President of the Chamber of Agriculture: “No one can deny climate change anymore. Forecasts assume that in 20 or 30 years we will have the climate of (the northern Italian city, note) Udine. We will then have no other choice than irrigation.” The now planned water rail between large cities in Central Carinthia should be used as an opportunity to consider our own irrigation rail: “We hope that we won’t need this in 20 years, but if we do need it then, we have to start planning now.” First, a study is needed to determine whether such an irrigation rail is technically feasible.
The forest is also under significant stress: the forest, already weakened by the bark beetle, is now in a seed year – as can be seen from the extreme pollen counts. “If there is no rain now, we don’t know what the bark beetle will do this year. The trees are fighting for survival and knocking out the seeds again,” said Huber. Added to this is the extreme risk of forest fires.
The view of the alpine pastures is also cloudy: the snowfall was also lower in the winter, and now, in May, the meadows and pastures on the alpine pastures would remain partly brown.
The drought is also causing problems in Lower Austria. “The concern is enormous. We are currently experiencing one of the most tense spring developments in recent years,” explained Johannes SchmuckenschlagerPresident of the Lower Austria Chamber of Agriculture, in a broadcast on Wednesday. There is a massive lack of rain across the board. “The result is an increasingly tense situation in the fields and meadows,” it said. With rising temperatures of up to 30 degrees Celsius, drought stress is further exacerbated by heat stress.
According to the information, plant development is “massively impaired”. Grain is in a crucial growth phase, “each additional dry day reduces yield and quality”. Freshly grown crops such as corn suffer from a lack of soil moisture. Losses were also recorded during the first cut in grassland in Lower Austria; the second growth is at great risk due to the drought. In exposed areas there is a risk of lasting damage, including the turf being “burned out”.
“The combination of drought, high production costs and uncertain yields is pushing many businesses to their limits,” said Schmuckenschlager. The Chamber of Agriculture called for further steps to reduce costs this year, in addition to the agreed agricultural diesel for 2027 and 2028. As a short-term measure, the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture also advocated the use of biodiversity areas to improve the feed base. “Drought and extreme weather are a reality. Measures such as irrigation and security systems must be consistently developed,” said Schmuckenschlager.APA)
