Mar 20, 2018
Late Planted Corn in Argentina gets some Relief from Dryness
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Some rain did fall across a narrow band in the core production area of Argentina, but I do not think it was enough to change the overall weather pattern, at least for now.
Before the rains over this past weekend, the overall corn crop in Argentina was rated approximately 75% poor to very poor and 87% short to very short on soil moisture. The early planted corn is 58% mature and 8% harvested. Any rain at this point will not help the early planted corn which is approximately 40% of Argentina's corn crop this year.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange estimates that 8% of the corn has been harvested and they are estimating the early corn yields thus far at 6,590 kg/ha (101.4 bu/ac) which is up 0.1 bu/ac from their estimate last week (see table below).
The later planted corn (approximately 60% of the total corn crop) is in worse condition than the early corn with 86% of the crop rated poor to very poor and 96% rated short to very short on soil moisture. The later planted corn is now 20% filling grain. Some of the latest planted corn could probably be helped a little by additional rainfall, but any additional rainfall needs to occur within the next 2-3 weeks.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange left their 2017/18 corn estimate unchanged at 34.0 million tons. The Rosario Exchange lowered their estimate to 32.0 million tons based on a harvested area of 5.36 million hectares and a nationwide yield of 5,980 kg/ha (92.0 bu/ac).