Center South Brazil Dries Favorably In Latest Week

Download .pdf

By Drew Lerner

Kansas City, February 22 (World Weather Inc.) – Weather conditions in Brazil during the past week were drier than the two previous weeks and the change was welcome after many summer crop areas became too wet. Soil conditions today are much improved over those of last week at this time because of the lighter and less significant rain. The only exception is in Mato Grosso and a few neighboring areas where rain fell abundantly during the weekend disrupted farming activity at times. Rio Grande do Sul also trended much wetter recently – mostly in southern corn and rice production areas.

Rainfall over the past week was greatest in three areas. The first was Mato Grosso and a few neighboring areas in Tocantins where rainfall varied from 1.69 to more than 4.00 inches. The precipitation was not as great as it was in the preceding week, but the ground was saturated in many areas earlier this month and the additional rain kept conditions a little too wet and muddy for optimal field working conditions. With that said, the latest statistics do not reflect much of a problem with harvesting moving forward 6% during the week and it was reported to be 52% done up from 33% a year earlier. Reports from the state continue to claim soybeans are being harvested with high moisture and that is costing the farmers financially because of the added drying expense.

Nationally, the soybean harvest was 26% done compared to 23% last year and 18% average. These figures were reported by AgRural.  Parana continues to be the biggest laggard when it comes to harvesting relative to normal. Fieldwork was just 20% done as of last Thursday which was down from 43% a year earlier.

Goias was 43% done harvesting compared to 28% last year and yields were up considerably after last year’s dryness problems. Rio Grande do Sul soybeans were still filling pods, although some of the crop mature and some was still flowering.

The latest rainfall was quite limited in Parana and Minas Gerais and somewhat limited in both Bahia and central Goias, as well.  Rice and southern corn areas in Rio Grande do Sul reported 2.00 to more than 4.00 inches of rain with western areas wettest.

Topsoil moisture was rated marginally adequate to slight short from Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul to Goias and Minas Gerais. Portions of Bahia, northernmost Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro were reporting very short topsoil moisture. In contrast the ground was saturated and with a surplus of topsoil moisture in Mato Grosso, Tocantins and Rio Grande do Sul.

Rainfall will continue erratic and light through Saturday in much of Brazil, but slowly increasing rain frequency and intensity is expected once again from center west through center south crop areas during the period from Sunday through March 3. Fieldwork will continue to advance around the precipitation, but there will still be some delay and soybean moisture levels will likely continue high in places like Mato Grosso.

Safrinha corn planting was 36% done in Brazil earlier this week and full season corn harvesting was 14% done compared to 25% last year. Yields of the main season crop were suspected of being quite high and much better than last year in many areas.

Second season corn planting will conclude soon in Goias and was already more than halfway complete in Mato Grosso while Parana was furthest behind in its annual fieldwork. Parana planting was just 25% done compared to 43% last year and 36% average.

World Weather, Inc. forecasts and comments pertaining to present, past and future weather conditions included in this report constitute the corporation’s judgment as of the date of this report and are subject to change without notice. Comments regarding damage or the impact of weather on agricultural and energy as well as comments made regarding the impact of weather on the commodity and financial markets are the explicit opinions of World Weather, Inc. World Weather, Inc. cannot be held responsible for decisions made by users of the Corporation’s information in any business, trade or investment decision.

©2017 World Weather, Inc. Any unauthorized redistribution, duplication or disclosure is prohibited by law and will result in prosecution.