April 30, 2009

With over half of the soy harvest complete, conditions vary widely with drought damage in much of the early soy and late soy in some areas suffering from early frosts, the Agriculture Secretariat said in its weekly crop report Wednesday (April 29).

As of April 23, 66 percent of the 2008-09 soy crop had been harvested, up 11 percentage points from the same date last year.

In the Lincoln district of Buenos Aires province, most of the early soy has been harvested, but the late crop has been affected by the first frost, with increased leaf losses, the Secretariat said.

Earlier Wednesday, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange slashed its forecast for 2008-09 soy production by almost three million tonnes, pegging output at just 34 million tonnes.

The Secretariat has forecast production at 37 million to 39 million tonnes, but revoked that forecast last month due to what it called "errors."

As of April 23, 65 percent of the 2008-09 corn crop had been harvested, up 16 percentage points from this point last season.

However, the crop is in poor shape due to drought damage. The Secretariat forecasts final production at 12.5 million to 13.8 million tonnes, the smallest crop in over five years.

In the Bragado district of Buenos Aires province, the harvest is progressing rapidly, without problems securing storage or harvesters "mainly due the yields coming in well under the average of recent seasons," the Secretariat said.

In the important corn-growing province of Cordoba, about 90 percent of the crop has been harvested, with yields continuing to be poor due to the drought damage. Final yields in the province are expected to average 6.5 to 7 tonnes per hectare, the Secretariat said.