(Wall Street Journal) -Farmers in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Goiás have barely started to plant soybeans for the 2015-2016 growing season because of unseasonably dry weather, according to the head of farmers’ group Aprosoja Brasil.
Soy growers would normally have finished about 10% of their planting at this time, but this year they have only finished 2%, according to Fabricio Rosa, executive director of Aprosoja Brasil. It isn’t too late for farmers to make up that lost ground, but the delay in planting soy risks disrupting the planting of Brazil’s winter corn crop, Mr. Rosa said.
“If you move back the planting of soy then you have a smaller window to plant corn,” he explained in an interview. “So we’re waiting now and it means we could have less time to plant corn or cotton.”
Farmers take advantage of Brazil’s mild winters by growing two crops a year. A frequent combination is to plant soy in October, November and December for harvesting in Brazil’s summer months of January, February and March, followed by corn that is planted during the summer for harvesting in the winter.
The states of Mato Grosso and Goiás are located in Brazil’s center-west grains belt. The two states together produce almost 40% of the country’s soy and so far the two have received only about half of the rain they would normally get in the planting season, according to Marco Antonio dos Santos, an agronomist and meteorologist at Somar Meteorologia.
“Farmers are getting anxious,” Mr. dos Santos said, adding that precipitation should start to improve toward the end of October, but it will probably still be less than normal.
The country’s soy crop has grown rapidly in recent years, from 52 million metric tons in the 2004-2005 season to 96.2 million tons 10 years later, in the recently finished 2014-2015 season, as demand from China and other countries has boosted demand and prices.
Brazil is the world’s second-biggest soy producer, after the U.S. The South American country’s official crop agency, Conab, forecast last week that the 2015-2016 soy crop will be from 100.1 million metric tons to 101.9 million tons, an increase of 4% to 5.9% from 2014-2015.
Aprosoja Brasil’s Mr. Rosa said he thinks the agency was being too optimistic. His group, which represents soy and corn growers, forecasts maximum production of about 100 million tons and minimum production about equal to last year’s crop.
