Nov 27, 2018
Imea Releases their First Corn Production Estimate for Mato Grosso
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea) released their first estimate of the state's 2018/19 corn production earlier last week. They are estimating that the state's corn production will increase 3.4% in 2018/19 to 28.5 million tons.
They predicted that farmers in the state will increase their safrinha corn acreage by 1.05% to 4.66 million hectares (11.5 million acres). The early planting of the soybeans in the state will allow for a longer planting window for the corn. The first soybeans could start to be harvested as early as the end of December and Imea had earlier stated that all the potential safrinha corn acreage would be ready for planting by the first week of February. This should allow enough time for farmers to plant all their intended safrinha corn before the ideal planting window closes about February 20th.
Imea is forecasting a statewide corn yield of 101.9 sacks per hectare (94.1 bu/ac), which would be 2.3% more than last year. They are predicting higher corn yields because most of the crop development will occur during the summer rainy period due to the potential early planting. The yields in western regions of the state are forecasted to be 109.7 sacks per hectare (101.3 bu/ac) while the corn yields in the mid-north are forecasted at 105.0 sacks per hectare (97.0 bu/ac).
They tempered their prediction by stating that there is a high probability of an El Nino during the next few months which could impact the amount of rainfall during the safrinha corn's growing season. Mato Grosso is Brazil's largest safrinha corn producing state.