December 21, 2011
South American soy crop to get ample rainfall
The drought-stricken soy and cornfields in Argentina and southern Brazil will receive ample rain in the coming days, giving temporary relief from the dry weather that hit the region, forecasters said Tuesday (Dec 20).
A cold front is expected to create rains over the key soy region of Buenos Aires on Wednesday and push deeper into the country's soy areas to the north the day after.
Ezequiel Marcuzzi, meteorologist with the local Clima Campo consultancy said the moisture would be very timely if confirmed, but that the crops would still need more rains further ahead to completely erase concerns about losses to the world's No. 2 corn and No. 3 soy exporter.
"Critical rains are expected. From tonight, (the front) will bring rain and showers across the south and southwest of Buenos Aires Province," he said. "On Wednesday, the rains will push to the north and gradually fall on the entire (grain) region."
Argentina is still in the peak of planting its soy crop but its corn crop is more developed.
Across the border to the north, a trace of showers are seen over parts of Brazil's third most important soy state of Rio Grande do Sul in the next 48 hours, local forecasters Somar said.
The state has only seen 18-26 millimeters so far in December, well below the 105-131mm normally registered throughout the month.
The cold front moving up from Argentina will move into southern Brazil over the Christmas weekend and should bring isolated rains to Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil's No. 2 soy state Parana, where weather has been drier than normal in the past weeks as well.
Parana's crop is further along in its soy crop development than in Rio Grande do Sul and approaching flowering, which will make it increasingly important that any rains coming from this weekend's cold front be followed up by more rains in the coming week to avert losses to yields in the south, Somar said.
For now, though, the trend for the region remains hot and dry which is consistent with the tendencies of La Nina conditions, which tend toward drier weather in the south of the region's grain belt.
In its extended 10-day forecast, Somar said more rains would organize over Brazil's center-west and southeast between Dec. 25-29.
Brazil's soy-rich center-west states have been drier than normal but not to the degree of the southern states. The center-west depends more for its moisture on the Amazon region.
The region's soy crop is developing nicely and moderate rains forecast across the region this week will help make up from slightly drier weather in recent weeks there, Somar said.