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. "The roads in rural areas are in a very bad state," said Anthony Deane, head of the Weather Wise Argentina consultancy.
"Last year's corn harvest was the slowest ever, and this year's might be even slower. We will not know that until the end of July." Argentina, the world's third biggest corn exporter according to USDA data, usually enjoys a period of high world demand and limited supply before the US harvest.
Futures prices have sagged on expectations of a glut of corn coming from two of the world's biggest producers, the United States and Argentina, in July through September. Supplies of corn from the United States are expected to remain ample for the foreseeable future. The US Department of Agriculture on Friday raised its 2017 US corn planting estimate and pegged the country's June 1 corn stockpile at more than 5.2 billion bushels, the most in 30 years.
Later Argentine harvests might be the way of the future, considering that late-planted crops have higher yields and new crops genetically altered to keep late-season pests at bay. "Without this biotechnology it was impossible to plant late corn because of insect attacks during our summer (from December 21 to March 21)," del Solar said. Late-planted corn also takes longer to ripen, he added, further delaying harvesting.