Apr 03, 2019
Good Early Corn Yields in Argentina, Soy Harvest just Starting
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Argentina Corn - Harvest reports keep pointing to potentially record high corn yields across central Argentina. The later yields will not be as good because they will be from areas that are not as productive, but thus far, it's looking really good.
The corn in Argentina is 12.2% harvested according to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, which represents an advance of 3.7% for the week. The most advanced corn harvest is in the northern core region and in the province of Entre Rios where the corn is slightly over 50% harvested. This is also where the first corn was planted. Outside of those two areas, the corn is generally less than 10% harvested.
As we have been reporting for the last several weeks, the early corn yields continue to be very good and above initial expectations with many yields above 10,000 kg/ha (154 bu/ac). The Grain Exchange keeps a weekly running total of the corn yields harvested thus far and last week the average is was 9,670 kg/ha (148.9 bu/ac), which was up 4.5 bu/ac from the previous week.
In their weekly crop report, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange rated the corn at 9.4% poor to very poor and 53.6% good to excellent, which was slightly lower than last week. The soil moisture for the corn was rated 16.3% short to very short and 27.3% optimum to surplus, which was defiantly dryer than last week. The early planted corn is 63% mature and 22% harvested.
Argentina Soybeans - The recent weather in Argentina has been on the wet side which has slowed the dry-down of mature soybeans, resulting in a slow start to the early harvest. The weather over the weekend was wet especially across northern Argentina, but the forecast for this week looks dryer especially across central Argentina. At the end of last week, the Argentine soybeans were 1.6% harvested compared to 8.8% last year. Early yields are in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 kg/ha (44.4 to 74.0 bu/ac).
These early yields will probably be some of the best of the season because they are from the core production areas where the weather has been favorable for most of the growing season. There are still some issues with the soybeans in the southwestern production areas where the weather has been dryer than normal and they had an early light frost several weeks ago.
In their weekly crop report, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange rated the soybean crop at 9.3% poor to very poor and 51.3% good to excellent, which was slightly lower than last week. The soil moisture for the crop was rated 11.1% short to very short and 35.4% optimum to surplus, which was definitely dryer than last week. The early planted soybeans are 51% mature while the later planted soybeans are 11% mature.