May 02, 2022
Argentina Recorded More Frosts/Freezes Late Last Week
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Last Friday morning, Argentina experienced another series of frosts/freezes which especially impacted the provinces of Buenos Aires and La Pampa. The hard freeze could impact some of the later planted soybeans that are still filling pods and some of the later planted corn that is in the dough stage. Argentina experienced the first frost of the fall in late March, which was unusually early. Since then, there have been several other episodes of frost, but last Friday morning was the worst.
Any time there is a frost late in the growing season, it is very hard to judge the extent of the damage until the crops are harvested. It is safe to say that the frost/freeze has the potential to trim the Argentine soybean production.
Improved weather last week allowed the soybean harvest to advance to 46% as of late last week compared to 33% last year and 54% average. This represented an advance of 15 points for the week. In the core production areas, the soybeans are 75-80% harvested with 20-40% harvested in southern Argentina and less than 10% harvested in far northern Argentina. The early planted soybeans were 59% harvested and the later planted soybeans were 21% harvested.
Soybean yields are highly variable in Argentina which reflects the variability in rainfall during the growing season. In the northern core area, the soybean yields vary from 1,500 kg/ha (23.8 bu/ac) to 5,000 kg/ha (79.5 bu/ac). In north-central Cordoba, the yields vary from 1,000 kg/ha (15.9 bu/ac) to 4,000 kg/ha (63.6 bu/ac).
According to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, the nationwide soybean yields thus far is 3,130 kg/ha (46.6 bu/ac) which is down 1.3 bu/ac from last week. Yields by crop reporting district range from a low of approximately 2,200 kg/ha (32.7 bu/ac) in Entre Rios to a high of 3,740 kg/ha (55.7 bu/ac) in western Buenos Aires and northern La Pampa.
As of late last week, the soybeans were rated 26% poor/very poor, 58% fair, and 16% good/excellent. The good/excellent percentage was down 2 points from the prior week. The soybean condition will probably decline again later this week when the frost/freeze damage is taken into consideration.