July 4, 2006

 

Argentina's 2005/06 corn crop 96 percent harvested

 

 

Farmers in Argentina had harvested 96.2 percent of the 2005/06 corn crop by Friday (Jun 30), the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange reported Monday.

 

That puts the collection pace up 2.6 two percentage points from a week ago.

 

The Exchange did not say how the pace compares with that of the previous year.

 

By Friday, farmers had harvested 2,119,112 million hectares, putting production so far at 13.782 million tonnes.

 

The average yield last week was unchanged at 6.5 tonnes/hectare.

 

The US Department of Agriculture has forecast Argentina's 2005/06 corn output at 14 million tonnes while the Exchange puts it at 14.4 million tonnes, down from about 19.62 million 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 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.