May 14, 2007
Argentina wheat seeding starts; area down 7 percent on-year
Argentina's farmers kicked off 2007/08 wheat planting this week with area dedicated to the crop expected to be down 7 percent from last year, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange said in its weekly crop report Friday (May 11).
Farmers are expected to plant 5.16 million hectares of wheat this year, compared with 5.55 million hectares a year ago.
The low domestic price for wheat and high fertiliser costs are leading farmers to turn away from winter wheat planting, the Exchange said. More sunseed, corn or soy will likely be planted instead.
Soy
As of Friday, farmers have harvested 78.8 percent of the soy crop, down 7.1 points from the same date a year ago, according to the Exchange.
Yields to date have averaged 3.07 tonnes per hectare, 14 percent higher than at the same point a year ago.
The Exchange sees 2006/07 soy production at 46 million tonnes.
The US Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture Secretariat see Argentina producing 45.5 million tonnes of soybeans this year.
Corn
Farmers have harvested 60 percent of this year's corn crop, 5.8 points behind last year's pace.
Yields from the 2006/07 crop are expected to total 8 tonnes per hectare, with total production of 22.5 million tonnes, according to the Exchange.
The Secretariat and the USDA forecast 22 million tonnes of corn coming from this year's crop.
Estimates for Argentina's 2006/07 crop production in millions of tonnes:
Wheat Soy Corn Sunseed
Agriculture Secretary 14 45.5 22 3.5
USDA 14.2 45.5 22 3.5
B.A. Cereals Exchange 13.8 46 22.5 3.4
Argentina's historical production estimates in millions of tonnes, according to the Agriculture Secretariat:
Wheat Soy Corn Sunseed
2005/06 12.6 40.5 14.5 3.8
2004/05 16 38.3 20.5 3.7
2003/04 14.6 31.6 15 3.1
2002/03 12.3 35 14.7 3.4
2001/02 15.3 30 15.4 3.8
