Dryness hurts Argentine wheat seedings

Ongoing dry weather is delaying 2004/05 wheat plantings and will reduce the number of hectares seeded in some parts of Argentina, the private Buenos Aires Grain Exchange said on Monday.
By Saturday, farmers had seeded 58 percent of the 6.2 million hectares the exchange foresees them planting with wheat - trailing last year's pace by nearly 2 percentage points.
The exchange cut its forecast for wheat area by 100,000 hectares from the week before, due to persistent dry conditions in south-west Buenos Aires province, the No. 1 wheat producer.
Wheat area is still forecast to be 4.7 percent greater than during the prior campaign.
Moisture is also lacking in south-central La Pampa province and north-east Santiago del Estero and Chaco.
In contrast, soil moisture is adequate in northern Buenos Aires, much of No. 2 wheat producer Cordoba province, and southern Santa Fe province, the No. 3 producer.
"In south-central Santa Fe, eastern Cordoba and south-eastern Entre Rios, wheat seedings are complete on 95 percent of forecast area, while in north-central Cordoba and Santa Fe, plantings cover 80 percent of forecast area," the report stated.
The US Department of Agriculture puts Argentina's 2004/05 wheat output at 14 million tonnes.
The government has yet to forecast production, but it expects wheat area to rise nearly 7 percent over the prior campaign to 6.4 million hectares.
Argentine farmers have completed the 2003/04 soybean harvest. Yields average 2.21 tonnes per hectare, nearly 21 percent lower than the prior season due to a prolonged dry spell that hurt crop development.
The grain exchange puts soybean production at 31.8 million tonnes, while the government foresees 32 million tonnes and the USDA forecasts 34 million tonnes. Last year, Argentina had a record harvest of 34.8 million tonnes.
The 2003/04 corn harvest is nearly complete, with just 3.3 percent of area remaining to be gathered in south-western and southern Cordoba, the exchange said.
Corn yields average 6.01 tonnes per hectare, below the 6.7 tonnes per hectare reached by the same date last year.
Both the exchange and the government put 2003/04 corn output at 12.6 million tonnes, while the USDA foresees 12.5 million tonnes.