Soybeans in Rio Grande do Sul 55% Harvested

Rio Grande do Sul – The last major state in Brazil to harvest soybeans is Rio Grande do Sul in far southern Brazil. Farmers in the state have now harvested 55% of the soybeans, which represents an advance of 17% for the week according to Emater. Another 34% of the soybeans are maturing, 10% are filling pods, and 1% are flowering.

Harvesting had been slowed by wet conditions, but recent dryer weather has allowed farmers to ramp up the soybean harvest. Another thing that had slowed the harvest pace was the fact that a lot of the soybeans are shorter in height than normal due to drought. That means that the pods are closer to the ground than normal forcing farmers to slow down the combine and be more cautious since the cutter bar had to be closer to the soil surface.

The soybean yields in the state have been improving as the harvest moved into the later maturing soybeans and the seed quality has improved as well. Even with the improved yields, the statewide soybean yield is expected to be 1,500 kg/ha (22.3 bu/ac), which is down 55% from initial expectations.

Corn harvesting in Rio Grande do Sul has been slow as farmers focused their efforts on getting the soybeans harvested. Farmers wanted to get their soybeans out of the field as quickly as possible because soybeans are more vulnerable to wet weather and hail compared to corn. The corn in the state is 82% harvested with 11% of the remaining corn maturing, 5% filling grain, and 2% pollinating.

Farmer soybean sales in Mato Grosso – The Mato Grosso Institute of Agricultural Economics (Imea) reported last week that farmers in the state had sold 67.8% of their 2021/22 soybean production which represented an increase of 6.5% during the month of March. For the 2022/23 soybean production, farmers had forward contracted 20.3% of their anticipated production, which was up 4.0% during March. Farmers in the state are cautious about forward contracting too much of their 2022/23 crop due to the elevated costs of inputs and potential shortages.

Tags: soybeans, Production, yield, Rio Grande do Sul, wet conditions, harvest, Brazil, weather