Sep 20, 2016
Farmers in Argentina Finally Complete their 2015/16 Corn Harvest!!
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The corn harvest in Argentina is now officially complete. It only took a little more than 6 months to complete the harvest of the 2015/16 corn crop which started in mid-March! The 2015/16 crop will go into the books as probably the slowest corn harvest on record in Argentina.
On March 21, 2016, the corn harvest in Argentina was 4% complete and it took until mid-September to finish the harvest. The problem of course was persistent wet weather that kept grain moisture very high and the general lack of drying facilities needed to dry the corn. The supplies of natural gas used for drying were short and gas prices were high, so farmers preferred to wait for the corn to dry in the field. That strategy worked fine in past years, but it did not work so well this year.
By this past May, the Argentine corn harvest had slipped into in record-slow territory. In mid-May the corn was 27% harvested compared to an average of 65%. By mid-June it was 32% harvested compared to an average of 80%. In mid-July it was 46% harvested compared to an average of 90%. By mid-August was 75% harvested compared to an average of 95%.
Now that the 2015/16 corn harvest is complete, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange estimate the nationwide corn yield at 8,090 kg/ha or 124.5 bu/ac.