Jun 04, 2010
Brazilian Cotton Crop Being Impacted by Dry Weather
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Dry weather in central Brazil is not only impacting the safrinha corn crop, it is also impacting the cotton crop as well. If the cotton was planted in December or early in January, it escaped the worst of the damage. If the cotton was planted in mid-February or later, it has suffered significant yield losses due to the dry weather.
According to the Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea) cotton yields in May were estimated at 13% lower than in April and 17% lower than during the 2008-09 growing season. Alvaro Salles, director of the Mato Grosso Cotton Institute, attributes the dry weather during April as the principal cause of the yield declines. He feels that yield losses might be as high as 50% for the latest planted cotton.
Generally cotton in Brazil is planted in December or early in January, but in recent years farmers have been planting more of the short cycle cotton varieties to take advantage of a second crop of cotton planted after the soybeans are harvested. The full season cotton varieties mature in about 210 days, but the short cycle cotton varieties can mature in a little as 170 days allowing it to be planted after the soybeans have been harvested. Unfortunately, this year the rainy season ended about two months earlier than it did last year and the later planted cotton ran out of water about half way through its growth cycle. The acreage of the short cycle cotton varieties increased from 5,000 during the 2008-09 growing season to approximately 40,000 hectares in 2009-10.