Jan 27, 2017
Rains Lighten but some Damage done to Mato Grosso Soybeans
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The rainfall this week in Mato Grosso and central Brazil has not been as heavy as it has been in recent weeks, which is allowing for the soybean harvest to resume, but there has been some damage done to the mature soybeans that were waiting to be harvested. According to the Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea), earlier this week, the soybeans in Mato Grosso were 11% harvested, which was slightly behind the 15% they had anticipated for that time.
The rainfall now is more scatted in nature allowing farmers to harvest if they happened to miss an afternoon rain.
In Lucas do Rio Verde, which is located in central Mato Grosso, the seed quality of some of the early maturing soybeans is already being impacted by the wet weather. According to the president of the Rural Syndicate, the seed quality in some fields will not meet the standards set by the grain companies. The grain companies will only allow 8% moldy/shriveled seed, while some fields have up to 40% moldy seed. The price of these poor quality seed will be discounted and they will only be used for animal rations. He feels the worst fields could see loses of up to 25%.
In Sorriso, which is the largest soybean producing municipality in Brazil and located in central Mato Grosso, the combines are back in the field trying to make up time form the recent wet weather. The rainfall now is less intense and the rural syndicate estimates that 35% of the soybeans have been harvested with an average yield of 57.7 sacks per hectare (50.2 bu/ac).
The slowed harvest left fields unharvested longer than desired and the effects are already being felt. According to the president of the Rural Syndicate, Lirico Pedro Lenz, fields that were yielding up to 63 sacks per hectare (54.8 bu/ac) are now yielding 59 sacks per hectare (51.3 bu/ac), indicating a loss of 3.5 bu/ac. The seeds have lost weight, so the same volume of seed now weighs less.
The wet weather has also resulted in more cases of soybean rust being reported in Mato Grosso. The total number of conformed cases in commercial soybeans in Mato Grosso now numbers 21 with 168 confirmed cases nationwide. The state of Parana has the most at 70, followed by Rio Grande do Sul with 32, Mato Grosso do Sul with 28, and Mato Grosso with 21.
Rust has been confirmed throughout the state of Mato Grosso and scientists are anticipating that many more cases will be confirmed. A favorable weather pattern and harvest activity tends to disperse the spores to fields that are still filling pods. If not adequately controlled, rust can cause premature defoliation during pod formation and pod filling resulting in losses from 10% to 90%