Feb 11, 2020
Brazilian Farmers Starting to Plant their 2019/20 Safrinha Corn
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Approximately three quarters of Brazil's corn will be produced as the safrinha crop, which farmers are just now starting to plant. The safrinha corn acreage is still uncertain and Conab will issue their first estimate of the 2019/20 Brazilian safrinha corn estimate on Tuesday, February 11, 2020.
Rio Grande do Sul full-season corn - The full-season corn in the state is 13% in vegetative development, 11% pollinating, 22% filling grain, 21% mature, and 33% harvested. The full-season corn in the state was negatively impacted by hot and dry weather earlier in the growing season with some analysts forecasting a yield reduction of up to 30%.
Santa Catarina full-season corn - Dry weather especially in the southern part of the state, which is next to Rio Grande do Sul, has negatively impacted the crop. The Center for Agricultural Socioeconomic Planning (Epacris/Cepa) estimates that the full-season corn production will be down 8% this year.
Parana corn - The full-season corn in Parana is 4% harvested with another 36% mature. The Department of Rural Economics (Deral) rated the full-season corn as 0% poor, 7% average, and 93% good. Farmers in Parana are just getting started planting their safrinha corn with 7% of the safrinha corn planted. The ideal planting window for safrinha corn in the state will close in about two weeks, so it looks like a significant percentage of the corn will be planted later than desired.
Mato Grosso safrinha corn - Imea reported that the safrinha corn in Mato Grosso was 38.9% planted compared to 52.1% last year and 35.0% average. This represents an advance of 17% for the week, which is a good week of planting. If planting continued at the same pace, approximately 75% of the safrinha corn will be planted by the end of the third week of February.