Dryness Forces Some Brazil Soy Farmers to Replant; Delays in Second Crop Seen

(Agriculture.com) – Scarce rainfall in Brazil’s main soybean producing regions at the start of the season will result in the replanting of some areas where farmers risked sowing with low moisture, according to weather experts.

Lack of rain is causing soybean planting delays and can exacerbate the risk of delays in planting of Brazil’s second crop – either corn or cotton – which farmers typically sow after the oilseed is harvested.

“Paraná has faced most of the dry weather … There’s been already replanting in some areas of the state,” Marco Antonio dos Santos, a weather expert at Rural Clima, told Reuters.

Still, analysts said Brazil’s soybean output will not be impacted by early season sowing delays, as the ideal climate window for planting is wide.

Replanting increases producers’ investments in seeds and raises fuel costs as field work must be redone.

“Those who risked planting early on are almost guaranteed to have to replant,” said agronomist Paulo Cesar Sentelhas at the Brazil Soy Strategic Committee (CESB).

Refinitiv weather data shows that some areas of Paraná, which is among the main soy producers in Brazil, were the most affected by the drought in the last 15 days.

Regardless, conditions at the start of the 2019/20 crop resemble those of 2017/18, when planting was also delayed and Brazil harvested a record 120 million tonnes of soybeans, Santos said.

For the current cycle, market analysts expect production of more than 120 million tonnes of soy.

“Those who are replanting can still recover. It’s too early to talk of a fall in yields,” Santos said.

Climate models indicate scarce rainfall throughout October and more normal rain patterns in the following month in key producing regions, suggesting good humidity for those who plant later.

CORN

While planting delays in the 2017/18 cycle did not prevent Brazil from registering a record soy crop that season, for second-crop corn it was the opposite.

Accounting for about 75% of Brazil’s corn output, second corn suffered that year from a drought after farmers sowed it outside of the ideal window.

Brazil’s second corn output fell 17.5% that year.

Even if soy planting was delayed in Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná, it is too early to say whether this will hurt the planting of second corn, said Daniely Santos, analyst at Céleres, citing the potential return of rains in the next 20 days.