Floods have slowed corn harvesting in some parts of Argentina but the crop losses being reported in waterlogged fields have been made up for by higher-than expected yields countrywide, farmers and analysts said on Monday.
With 51 percent of the 2016/17 crop collected, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange expects a record 39 million tonne crop with nationwide yields averaging 8.5 tonnes per hectare. "I was expecting about 9 tonnes per hectare and we are bringing in a bit more than 10," said Santiago del Solar, who works about 10,000 hectares (24710 acres) of prime farmland in north-western Buenos Aires province.
In some parts of Buenos Aires yields have touched 13 tonnes her hectare, according to local farmer Gustavo Cosentino, who is growing 500 hectares of corn near the town of General Belgrano. "We've had more rains than normal rain, which has slowed harvesting," Cosentino said. "But yields are good." Argentina's usual May-June harvesting season is being pushed into late July by a combination of later planting and extremely wet weather that has made soils too soft to support multi-tonne harvesting combines.
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