Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul soybean sowing is 97% complete: Emater

The sowing of the soybean crop in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul advanced 2 percentage points in the week ending on January 20 and reached 97% complete, the latest report from state agency Emater/RS-Ascar showed late Thursday.

Planting had already been completed by the same period of last year, with the delay a result of the lack of moisture in the soil due to the drought.

The weather was extremely hot, dry and with high solar radiation across the state, which aggravated the difficulties in the development of crops and kept planting from advancing.

“In some crops, the death of plants still in the initial phase of development was reported, while the situation was mitigated the occurrence of rain in varying volumes”, Emater stated.

The sowing area is expected to reach 6.3 million hectares, a 3.6% year-over-year increase, while production is expected to reach 19.9 million mt, 2.3% down on the year.

Corn

The dry weather, on the other hand, allowed the corn harvest to reach 27% complete, a 7 percentage points increase in the week,

At the same point last year and on the average for the period in the last five years, 18% of the area was harvested.

While the harvesting gains momentum the sowing of the corn crop advances slowly and reached 96% complete, once again a 1 percentage point weekly advance.

In the same period of 2021, 97% of the area was sown while the average for this period in the last five years is 99% complete. 

According to Emater, part of the producers chose not to harvest grains, due to the cost of the operation, the low quality of the product and reduced grain size.

“These crops will be destined either for whole plant silage or for direct grazing”, the agency stated.

Emater kept its output estimates unchanged at 6.1 million mt, a 39.2% increase from last year.

The area is expected to reach 834,000 hectares, 6.9% higher on the year.