October 12, 2011

Argentina may finish harvest earlier with favourable weather

Argentine farmers may finish sowing in the main producing areas by the end of this month as rain allowed them to speed up planting, according to a Bloomberg report.

Producers have planted about half the corn crop and can resume sowing after a few days of "fantastic" precipitation, said Cristian Russo, an agronomist at the Rosario exchange. The main corn and soy growing areas received as much as 80 millimetres of rain in the past four days, the exchange said.

Some farmers were expected to halt or slow down planting until at least November after a month of below average rainfall, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange said . The main growing region may receive more rain in the next few days, Russo said.

Rainfall was "almost optimum" for the country's crops, he said. "Now the conditions are right" to finish planting by the end of the month, he said.