August 21, 2006

Argentina harvests 99 percent of 2005/06 corn crop

Argentina's farmers completed 99 percent of the 2005/06 corn harvest as of Thursday (Aug 17), the Agriculture Secretariat reported Friday.

The pace is unchanged from a year ago, when area was bigger.

As of Thursday, farmers had harvested 2,415,500 hectares.

Planted area totalled 3.165 million hectares compared with 3.4 million a year earlier. This includes corn grown exclusively for use as animal feed.

According to the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange, farmers had collected all of 2.2 million hectares by July 21.

The Exchange's estimate doesn't include corn planted for use as animal feed. The average yield was 6.54 tonnes per hectare, putting production so far at 14.4 metric tonnes, according to the Exchange.

The Secretariat has estimated 2005/06 corn production at 14 million tonnes, down from 20 million tonnes a year ago, when excellent weather lifted yields to record levels.

The US Department of Agriculture forecasts Argentina's 2006/07 corn production at 17.5 million tonnes.