The reporting period covered the late states of sugar beets (October harvest) and early vegetative stages o winter wheat and winter barley (planted in October) in Germany. The CropWatch agroclimatic indicators indicate above average rainfall and temperature (+10% and +1.8°C), while radiation decreased by 8%. With the positive moisture and thermal anomalies, biomass is expected to increase by13% compared to the five-year average at the national scale. This observation is confirmed by the NDVI profiles, with the national NDVI values well above average and even close to the five-year maximum, except for a sharp drop at the beginning of December and another sharp drop at the end of January.The NDVI clusters indicate that NDVI values over the country were above average from the end of October to early December; a sharp drop of NDVI in December mostly affected central and southern Germany. The maximum VCI map also presents overall good crop condition. Generally, due to the suitable temperature and moisture conditions, the agronomic indicators mentioned above indicate a favorable condition for most winter crop areas of Germany.

Figure3.10. Germany crop condition, October2014-January 2015