May 4, 2004

Argentina's 2003-04 Corn 52.7% Collected
 
Meanwhile, farmers had also collected 52.7% of the 2003-04 corn harvest by Saturday, the exchange reported. By this time last year, farmers had collected 70.1% the harvest.
 
Corn collection has been delayed in many areas because of heavy rain.
 
So far, farmers have produced 7.6 million metric tons of corn, according to the exchange.
 
Collectable area stands at 2.2 million hectares and 1.15 million hectares have been collected thus far.
 
The average yield last week was 6.61 tons/hectare, which is down from 6.94 tons a year ago at this time.
 
Based on the average yield thus far, the exchange has estimated total production of 12.8 million tons. This forecast, which has not changed in almost two months, would be a decline of about 3 million tons from the previous year, according to exchange data.
 
The USDA has forecast 2003-04 corn production at 12.5 million tons.