Jul 02, 2015
Farmers in Mato Grosso busy Harvesting Corn and Cotton
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Farmers in Mato Grosso are busy harvesting their record large safrinha corn crop and they are starting to harvest their cotton crop as well. The Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea) is estimating that 12% of the slightly more than 3 million hectares of safrinha corn have been harvested.
Early yield results have been very encouraging in the range of 110 sacks per hectare (6,600 kg/ha or 101.6 bu/ac) compared to last year's yield of 91.6 sacks per hectare (5,496 kg/ha or 84.6 bu/ac). Even though much of the corn was planted later than normal, the crop benefited from an extended rainy season and a lack of any prolonged period of dry weather. In fact, some of the earlier harvested corn had higher than desired moisture content due to late season rainfall, but moisture levels are expected to be more normal as the harvest progresses.
Corn prices generally decline at the start of the harvest and that has been the case this year as well. Imea reported that corn prices in the state are 18% lower than at the end of June in 2014, but that was before the June Acreage Report was released in the United States. With the recent price increases at the Chicago Board of Trade, domestic corn prices in Brazil are expected to move higher, but they will probably stay below those in the U.S. due to local harvest pressure.
Farmers in the state have also started to harvest their 2015 cotton crop as well. After somewhat of a slow start due to wet weather, Imea is now estimating that 1% of the 552,000 hectares of cotton have been harvested. Early cotton yields are considered satisfactory, but yields are expected to increase as the harvest moves into more productive regions.
The state of Mato Grosso is Brazil's largest corn and cotton producing state.