Rains improve corn crop condition in Argentina, more needed in February

Rains over the last few days have improved the crop conditions of the late-planted corn crop in Argentina, which has seen drought hitting the early-planted corn crops.

The area of 2021-22 corn crops under excellent or good condition rose to 32% as of Jan. 26 from 22% the week before, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, known as BAGE, said in a report.
“Rains have continued to increase water reserves in most of the agricultural area. Planting conditions improved in the provinces of Salta, Tucuman, and Santiago del Estero, where a large part of the area to be sown is concentrated,” BAGE said in the report.

While the recent rains have raised the hopes of higher yield in the late-planted corn crop following the losses in the early corn due to drought, analysts warn that more rain is needed in the coming days.

” If the rains continue, we are going to achieve an average yield higher than that of early-planted corn,” Rosario Grains Exchange, known as the BCR said in a report.

If it does not rain abundantly in February, the production potential of the late-planted corn will not be sustained, the BCR said in the report.

The weather forecast for Argentina in the coming days looks mixed.

“The increased soil moisture, along with cooler temperatures, has led to a significant reduction in crop stress across central and southern Argentina, with dryness now limited to far northeastern Argentina. Drier weather is expected in Argentina over the next 10 days, which will allow soil moisture to decline again, but not to the levels seen earlier this month,” Maxar said in its daily weather report on Jan. 27.

The BCR recently cut Argentina’s 2021-22 MY corn production forecast by 8 million mt to 48 million mt due to the drought.

The 2021-22 corn crop will be marketed over March 2022-February 2023.

Argentina, one of the top exporters of corn, had produced 52 million mt of corn in 2020-21, according to the BCR report.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture’s attache in Argentina cut corn production outlook to 51 million mt in 2021-22, 3 million mt below the official USDA forecast.

The USDA’s attache report also warned that if conditions continue to be on the dry side, the current production projection most likely will have an additional cut.

Argentina’s early corn is usually planted in September-October and harvested in April-May, while the late corn crop is planted in December-January and harvested in June-July.

S&P Global Platts

Tags: corn, drought, crop, rains, yield, Weather forecast, Argentina