Warmer weather divides Argentina’s wheat harvest: BAGE

Warm weather has helped Argentina’s farmers pick up the pace of the wheat harvest in the north of the country, but has divided progress in the centre, according to a weekly update from the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange.

For the north, warmer weather allowed combines to get back into the fields to resume the harvest, with yields said to be reaching 2.5 mt/ha, although the agency expects that to improve as “the yield expectations of the areas still standing are above the yields already collected.”

However, in the central regions, the impact has been divided between hot and dry conditions in the east that has caused ‘heat strokes’ during critical development stages for the wheat, while the western side has seen enough rain to alleviate drought stress, but at expense of fungal growth.

“In Entre Ríos, where the rains have been more abundant, fusarium foci have been detected and the lack of sun increases the risk of spreading to sectors that still maintain a good sanitary state,” BAGE notes in the report.

Meanwhile, in the south, the dry conditions are continuing to compromise crop development as it enters the final campaign, with up to 35% of the area in regular or bad condition.

For corn, planting saw a 6 percentage point increase over the week taking progress to 34.6% of the 6.4 million hectares that are expected to be planted.

That puts the pace largely on par with last year’s progress, with planting ahead by a slim 0.2 percentage points.

Sunflower planting saw similar progress, gaining 6.4 percentage points to see 43.2% of the 1.65 million hectares now planted.