Historic heat summer brings massive harvest failures in the Baden Rhine Valley

Lahr-Kippenheimweiler, St. Märgen. A historic hot summer is coming to an end in the Baden Rhine Valley, and Klaus Dorner, the district chairman of the Baden Agricultural Association (BLHV) for the Lahr/Black Forest region, describes the effects on agriculture with drastic figures.

As a farmer himself, he expects up to a third of the farms in the Rhine Valley in southern Baden to experience total failures in the harvest of corn and soy. For another third, he expects massive losses in yield. “Even with corn we have damage like never before,” says Dorner, even though corn is one of the heat-loving plants.

Dorner himself grows corn on a good 95 hectares. The remaining 100 hectares are devoted to wheat, soy, winter rapeseed and viticulture. There are also 2,500 hens and 400 pigs kept conventionally. This makes Dorners Hof one of the 20 largest agricultural businesses in the surrounding area.