Scarce rains over key Brazilian grain growing regions in September may cause an unexpectedly bigger reduction in the area planted with corn during the summer, according to a weather report on Monday. The summer corn planted area was initially expected to fall 20 percent to 25 percent due to a drop in the price of the commodity, said Marco Antonio dos Santos, founding partner at Rural Clima.
"But September was extremely dry and hot and this percentage is likely to increase as the ideal window for summer corn planting was shortened," the forecaster said. "The situation is pushing more producers to replace corn planting with soya."
Official grain estimates for Brazil's 2017/18 crop, which is being planted now, will be released on October 10. The government's supply and statistics agency Conab said summer corn, also known as first corn, was planted over an area of 5.48 million hectares in the prior crop. Due to poor rains, Brazil's soya producers had planted only 1.5 percent of the 2017/18 crop through September 28, less than half the level at this time last year.
In addition, scarce rains caused summer corn planting to be completely halted, with some crop damage in the Southern states of Parano, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. That happened on farms where corn was sowed in early September, according to Rural Clima.
Still, soil humidity levels rose last weekend in Brazil's main grain regions, which is expected to help farmers advance soya planting as well as aid fields that have been sowed. But while rain is expected on Monday and Tuesday in the Center-West, Southeast and South regions of the country, they are expected to be irregular over the next 10 or 12 days, the forecaster said, adding that soya farmers should proceed "with caution" until conditions improve. Soya and corn account for about 90 percent of Brazil's grain output. Only during the second half of October will rains become more frequent over the main producing regions, Rural Clima said.
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