Feb 06, 2018
Argentina Corn Crop being impacted by Hot and Dry Conditions
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The corn crop in Argentina is probably more at risk from the hot and dry conditions than the soybean crop because corn is more sensitive to hot and dry conditions, especially at pollination.
We talk about early and late planted corn in Argentina and I would classify approximately 40% of the corn as early planted and 60% of the corn as late planted. The earlier planted corn is 66% pollinating, 22% filling grain, and 3% mature. The later planted corn is 22% pollinating with 0% grain filling.
There have been reports of poor pollination and grain filling for some of the early planted corn, especially in eastern Argentina, but most of the pollination risk for the early planted corn is now behind us. For the later planted corn, most of the pollination risk is still in front of us.
The condition of the corn in Argentina is 11% very poor, 19% poor, 31% fair, 35% good, and 4% excellent. The earlier planted corn is rated lower than the later planted corn probably because the earlier corn is more advanced and any moisture stress is more evident, while the later planted corn is still mostly in vegetative development with some of the crop entering into pollination. The soil moisture situation for the corn is 11% very short, 42% short, 36% adequate, 10% optimum, and 2% surplus.
The corn in Argentina is rated 30% poor to very poor and the soil moisture is rated 53% short to very short - not a good combination for corn production.