Sep 27, 2018
Soybean and Full-Season Corn Planting in Parana at Record Pace
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The early spring weather in Parana in southern Brazil has been very conducive for rapid planting of the full-season corn and soybeans. According to the Department of Rural Economics (Deral), farmers in the state of Parana have planted 18% of their 2018/19 soybean crop compared to just 2% planted last year at this time. Rainfall early in September allowed farmers to start planting their soybeans as soon as the soybean-free period ended on September 10th. This is the fastest soybean planting pace in at least five years. Last year, dry weather kept farmers from starting to plant their soybeans until later in October. Deral is estimating that farmers in the state will plant 5.45 million hectares of soybeans and the soybean production in the state will be 19.6 million tons.
Many of the soybeans that have been planted are early-maturing (95-day maturity), so they could be ready for harvesting by late December or early January. As a result, the export of new crop soybeans from Brazil expected to start by mid to late January of next year.
Farmers in the state have also planted 58% of their anticipated 352,000 hectares of full-season corn compared to 16% last year at this time. It was dry weather last year that delayed the planting.
The more abundant rainfall this year has a drawback as well as advantages. The wheat crop in Parana is only 20% harvested compared to 65% harvested last year. The more frequent rains have delayed the harvesting of the wheat which is expected to produce 2.9 million tons.