Rains boost Argentine 2011-12 soyabean crop but more needed

Rains that soaked parched Argentine 2011/12 soya this week boosted crop growth but some areas are still in need of showers, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday. Weeks of dry weather reduced prospects for a record 2011/12 harvest in the world's No 3 soyabean exporter, which is also the top supplier of soyaoil and soyameal, though recent showers have improved the outlook, especially for later-seeded crops.
The government said in its first official estimate on Thursday that Argentina's soya crop could be as small as 43.5 million tonnes due to drought damage, lower than many private forecasts. "Early seeded fields are unripe but with low moisture," the ministry report said about the district of Rio Cuarto, located south of Cordoba province, the country's No 2 soya producer. "Rains especially helped late-seeded crops," the report said.
By Thursday, farmers had planted 99 percent of the 18.8 million hectares forecasted to be seeded with of soya, unchanged from last week and 1 percentage point behind last season's pace. Argentina supplies nearly half the world's soyameal, used for animal feed, as well as soyaoil, used for cooking and in the booming international biofuels sector.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts Argentina's 2011/12 soya crop at 48 million tonnes. Argentina is the world's No 2 corn supplier after the United States and the prolonged dry spell has dimmed prospects that it will be able to replenish global supplies.
Corn, which is planted earlier than soya, was even harder hit by weeks of dry weather that lasted until mid-January, hampering plants as they passed through key yield-defining growth stages. Showers this week helped recovery of late-planted 2011/12 corn, though they came too late for the early seeded and most hard-hit corn. "Since the rains did not fill up the grain effectively, most of it will be used as fodder," the report said about Veinticinco de Mayo in Buenos Aires province, Argentina's top corn-producer. In its first official forecast, the ministry estimated corn production on Thursday at between 20.5 million tonnes and 22 million tonnes, way below the 30 million tonnes seen at the start of the season.
Argentine farmers had planted 99 percent of the close to 5 million hectares earmarked for the 2011/12 crop by Thursday, advancing 1 percentage point from the previous week. The USDA estimates Argentina's 2011/12 corn harvest at 22 million tonnes. Regarding sunseeds, the ministry said that by Thursday, farmers had gathered 26 percent of the 1.9 million hectares planted with the oilseed in the 2011/12 season. The exchange forecasts the crop could reach 3.7 million tonnes.