October 19, 2011

Argentina's favourable weather enables farmers to speed up sowing

Argentine corn farmers accelerated planting in the main growing region following abundant rain over the past weeks, according to the Rosario Cereals Exchange in a Bloomberg report.

"Very good" soil moisture in the main growing area allowed farmers to speed up sowing after some regions received as much as 3.9 inches of rain, said Tomas Parenti, an agricultural engineer at the exchange, in an interview.

Producers in the main region are likely to plant corn across 14% more land this season, up from a year ago, Parenti said. The crop in the main area is about 80% planted and will cover about 870,000 hectares (2.1 million acres), he said. Corn planting was delayed because of last month's dry weather.