Oct 27, 2009
Good Weather Accelerates Soybean Planting In Mato Grosso
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Soybean farmers in Mato Grosso and in the rest of central Brazil are progressing very rapidly in planting their 2009-10-soybean crop. The state of Mato Grosso is already more than 50% planted, which is double the normal planting progress. In fact, in parts of Mato Grosso such as the municipality of Lucas do Rio Verde in central Mato Grosso; the soybean planting has already surpassed 80% complete. A few more weeks of good weather and some areas of Mato Grosso will finish soybean planting.
The combination of warm temperatures and nearly perfect rainfall has given the soybean crop in Brazil a very good start especially in central Brazil. Conab uses a scale to rate the conditions of the crop and on that scale a -3 would indicate a sever impact due to adverse conditions and a +3 would indicate very favorable conditions. Using that scale, Conab is using a rating of +2 or +3 for all the top five producing soybean states in Brazil.
In southern Brazil, the rainfall has been too heavy especially for the winter crops such as wheat, barley, oats, rye, and triticale. All of these crops have been severely affected by the heavy rains just as farmers were attempting to harvest them. The yield and quality of these winter grains is being negatively impacted by the wet weather. The heavy rains have also delayed sugarcane harvesting in Sao Paulo and northern Parana. In fact, some of the sugarcane scheduled to be harvested this growing season, probably won't be harvested until next growing season.