South America’s harvest results are a mixed bag this year. Dr. Michael Cordonnier, an agronomist at Soybean and Corn Advisor, says Brazil’s second corn crop turned out well.
He says, “Conab came out yesterday, and they increased the corn estimate in Brazil by two-and-a-half million tons to 114 (million). Now, the big increase was for the Safrinha corn crop, which is up 1.9 million from May and increased the acreage by 160,000 hectares (395,000 acres) and Increased the yield by one bushel. Now, Conab has a history of finding more Safrinha acreage as the season progresses. That’s what happened this year.”
Brazil’s soybeans were the opposite according to Dr. Cordonnier. He says, “Of course, they had the problems Rio Grande do Sul, and they did lower the Brazil soybean estimate three-tenths of a million tons to 147.3 (million tons), so that was a result of severe flooding that lost maybe three million tons of soybeans in the field in Rio Grande do Sul, and maybe as much as two million tons that were in storage. So, that was a big deal for Rio Grande do Sul.”
The recent flooding in Rio Grande do Sul is the second flooding episode in the last six months. When the rains first began this time, soybean harvest wasn’t completed.
Dr. Cordonnier says, “When the rain started, the soybeans were like 75 percent harvested, so it came right towards the end of the harvest, and they probably did not harvest the last 10 percent. And what they did harvest after the rain started was terrible condition. It had germinated in the pods, and it would sprout in moldy and terrible condition.”
For more information, go to soybeansandcorn.com.
Story courtesy of NAFB News Service
