Rain Boosts Argentina Soy Crop, But Too Late In West

With the El Nino weather system building, heavy rainfall has already coated the south of Brazil and Uruguay and is moving south to soak most of Argentina’s farm belt.

But the showers aren’t likely to make it to the drought-stricken southwestern fringes in time for planting there.

That bodes well for the record soybean crop Argentina is currently planting, but will leave farmers hung out to dry in the western parts of Buenos Aires, Cordoba and La Pampa provinces, said the chief climatologist for the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange, Eduardo Sierra.

Conditions are dire in those areas, with the fourth straight year of dry conditions leading to desertification as topsoil is carried away by the wind.

However, its a very different story across the Pampas, Argentina’s traditional farm belt. Conditions are good there, with a lashing of storms over the next two weeks expected to soak fields and facilitate planting of the late soy.

On Friday, the first of an expected series of thunderstorms hit, soaking crops in parts of Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, and northern Buenos Aires provinces, Tstorm Weather said.

“The ongoing, recent pattern is not similar to the one that was occurring one year ago and our concern for a repeat drought is low, especially given the strengthening El Nino,” T-storm said.

As of Wednesday, farmers had planted 34% of the record 19 million hectares seen going to soy this season, according to the Buenos Aires exchange. The severity of the drought in the west has raised concerns that not all of the forecast area will actually be planted, but those worries are unfounded, Sierra said.

Source: CME Group