June 13, 2006

 

Argentina's 2005/06 soybean crop 99 percent harvested

 

 

Argentina's farmers had collected 99.1 percent of the 2005/06 crop by Saturday (Jun 10), the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange reported Monday.

 

That puts the collection pace up from 96.6 percent a week ago and up 5.6 points from a year earlier.

 

As of Saturday they had collected 15,281,290 hectares, putting output so far at 40.44 million tonnes.

 

Planted area totals 15.62 million hectares, up from 14.67 million hectares a year earlier. Increased area is the main reason why output is up so much from a year earlier.

 

The average yield last week was 2.65 tonnes/hectare.

 

The Exchange has forecast the size of harvest at a record 40.75 million tonnes. If the forecast holds, it would put production up from 38.85 million tonnes a year ago.

 

The US Department of Agriculture sees Argentina's soybean production at 41.3 million tonnes while the Agriculture Secretariat has put it at 40 million tonnes.

 

 

Corn

 

Farmers had also harvested 87.7 percent of the 2005/06 corn crop by Saturday, putting the collection pace up 3 percentage points from a week earlier but down 5.8 points from a year ago.

 

By Saturday farmers had harvested 1.932 million hectares, putting production so far at about 12.5 million tonnes.

 

The average yield last week was 6.47 tonnes/hectare.

 

The USDA has forecast Argentina's 2005/06 corn output at 14 million tonnes while the Exchange puts it at 14.4 million tonnes, way down from about 19.62 million tonnes a year earlier.

 

Farmers planted less corn this season and a long drought damaged what was planted. Planted area totals 2.26 million hectares, down from 2.63 million hectares a year ago.

 

The 2005/06 area, including corn grown for use as animal feed, totals around 2.85 million hectares.

 

Argentines plant corn September through January and harvest it February through July.