BUMPER SOYBEAN CROP EXPECTED IN ARGENTINA
Soybean production in Argentina is forecast to surge by nearly 150% in the 2023-24 marketing year as perfectly timed rains have fallen during planting season, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The FAS projects output at 50.5 million tonnes this season, compared with 20.5 million in 2022-23, a year in which drought slashed yields and reduced planted area. Regarding the 2023-24 crop, the FAS said the El Niño weather pattern finally ended the country’s worst drought in more than 60 years. The agency revised its soybean planted area projection higher by 800,000 hectares to 17.2 million. The increase is due to the improved weather conditions and “potential economic policy changes by the new government that will encourage exports”. The agency pegs 2023-24 exports at 6 million tonnes, more than three times higher than the amount shipped the previous year. Nationwide, 79% of the corn crop had been planted as of Dec. 31, which was nearly 9% ahead of last year’s pace, it said. Nearly all the planted crop is rated in a condition of optimal or adequate.
(Link: WorldGrain)
YIELDS JEOPARDIZED AMID HOT AND DRY WEATHER IN BRAZIL
Brazil’s Conab slashed soybean and corn estimates this past week with weather being the primary reason. For the second week of January 2024, rainfall was mainly below normal from Mato Grosso do Sul to northern and eastern Rio Grande do Sul while parts of northern Mato Grosso were wetter than normal. In the third week of January, a wetter start to the week may give way to drier and increasingly hotter weather in Mato Grosso. Meanwhile, southern Brazil sees a return of wetter than normal weather. Some crops are already too far gone to be salvaged this season; however, it is important that consistent rainfall returns to center-west Brazil. Soil moisture needs to be replenished to carry the second corn crop, which will be planted in a few weeks, into the dry season. That said, the rainfall will need to not only be consistent but timely. Too much rainfall later in January and into February could delay soybean harvest and subsequent second corn crop planting.
(Link: Successful Farming)
