Nov 11, 2010
Mato Grosso Soybean Acreage Down, Cotton Acreage Up
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The high price of cotton and the delayed onset of the rains have farmers in Mato Grosso reassessing their soybean and cotton planting intensions. Instead of planting a late crop of soybeans and then not having enough time to plant a second crop of cotton, a number of farmers in the state have decided not to plant soybeans at all and are opting to plant more full season cotton instead.
As a result, the Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea) has lowered their estimate of soybean acreage in Mato Grosso from their previous estimate of 6.24 million hectares to 6.14 million hectares. This decline of 100,000 hectares is the result of farmers deciding not to plant some of their soybeans in favor of planting additional cotton acreage. As a result, they now estimate the 2010/11 soybean production in the state at 18.44 million tons, which is down from their previous estimate of 18.44 million tons. They estimate an average soybean yield in the state at 3,001 kg/ha or 43.5 bu/ac.
The cotton acreage in Mato Grosso is expected to increase from 419,000 hectares in 2009/10 to 534,000 hectares in 2010/11.
Imea estimates that the safrinha corn acreage in the state will decline 10% from 1.93 million hectares in 2009/10 to 1.76 million hectares in 2010/11. No production estimates are currently available for the safrinha corn in Mato Grosso, but the later the safrinha corn is planted, generally the lower the yields.