Last week's rains slowed the soyabean and corn harvests in Argentina, but both crops have high yields and total output is still forecast to be good, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange said on Monday. On Saturday, farmers had harvested 40.9 percent of the 14.67 million hectares the exchange says were seeded with soyabeans, rising 11 percentage points over last week. "A series of rains interrupted the harvest in much of central and northern Santa Fe and Cordoba," the grain exchange said in its weekly crop report, referring to the No 1 and No 2 soya-producing provinces.
But in parts of the main growing region, beans are yielding as much as 4.5 tonnes to 5.0 tonnes per hectare. Last season, average yields nation-wide totalled just 2.2 tonnes per hectare due to drought. Average yields to date are 3.14 tonnes per hectare, which is 27 percent higher than by the same time last year despite low yields in north-central and northern Santa Fe.
In No 4 soya producer Entree Rio's province, soaked soils have greatly delayed the harvest, the exchange reported. Dry weather over the weekend and in the next few days is expected to facilitate the soya harvest, but on Thursday weather conditions are expected to worsen and gathering is forecast to slow again in the soya belt.
The grain exchange forecasts 2004/05 soyabean output at 37.8 million tonnes, which is well above the record 34.8 million tonnes produced in the 2002/03 growing season. Last year, soya production was just 31.5 million tonnes.
The government foresees soya production reaching a record 37.5 million tonne while the US Department of Agriculture foresees Argentine output of 39 million tonnes.
By Saturday, farmers had harvested 49.3 percent of the 2.6 million hectares seeded with commercial-use corn, advancing about 6.5 percentage points in the last week. Yields so far average 7.98 tonnes per hectare, above the 6.73 tonnes per hectare reaped by the same time last year.
Average yields rose "thanks to results obtained in the main corn-growing region of eastern Cordoba, south-central Santa Fe, south-west Entree Rio's and northern Buenos Aires," the exchange said, adding that yields in this area average 9.26 tonnes per hectare.
In some exceptional cases, yields are as high as 15 tonnes per hectare. Although last week's rains delayed the harvest, they are seen as beneficial for later-seeded corn plants in northern Cordoba and Santa Fe, as well as in the north-western provinces of Salta and Toucan, the report said.