Argentine soya and corn farmers are facing yield losses this season due to dry, hot weather that persisted over the weekend and was expected to stay through the days ahead, a weather consultant for the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Monday.
Grains powerhouse Argentina is the world's No. 3 exporter of both crops, but dryness late in the sowing season will affect harvests, consultant Eduardo Sierra said. International corn and soya prices have been supported by the bad Argentine weather.
"There will be some yield losses in both soya and corn," Sierra said. "It's a problem of gray areas. The situation is not black and white. We are not in a situation of absolute drought, but neither are conditions optimal." Sierra said marginal showers were expected toward the end of this month and in early February in the heart of Argentina farm country in northern Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Santa Fe, La Pampa and southern Cordoba provinces.
"The corn that was planted in good soil moisture conditions early in the season is suffering now, because it has been extremely dry and hot while plants are in their grain-filling stage," said David Hughes, who farms in the Alberti area of northern Buenos Aires province.
"The early planted corn, which makes up about 40 percent of the Argentine crop, is under stress, so we expect an important drop in yields. In my area of Alberti we're speaking of a drop in yields of 20 percent or more," Hughes said by telephone. Early planted soya is in its flowering stage, which determines the number and size of beans filling the pod within each flower.
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