Rain storms over the weekend helped build ample soil moisture in Argentina's main farming region, ahead of sunny and in some places cold weather during the days ahead, local meteorologists forecast Monday. Some isolated pockets of frost may form in the southern part of key producing province Buenos Aires and forecasters warn of La Nina-related dryness next month.
But conditions as of Monday were largely favourable in the grains exporting country, where most 2011/12 soya and corn is already in the ground and has begun to flower. "There were rain storms over the weekend in parts of Cordoba and Santa Fe provinces, which where favourable for the flowering of wheat and corn crops," said Leonardo De Benedictis, with the local Clima Campo consultancy. "Starting on Wednesday, we expect a period of five to seven days without any significant rains," he added.
This should help farmers who are starting to harvest wheat in some areas while threatening to dry out some corn and soya fields, Benedictis said. Weather influenced by La Nina, which tends to halt rain supplies in Argentina, is expected to begin having some effect on the country next month. "The dryness that we are about to see later this week can be considered an early warning of La Nina," Benedictis added.
Argentina has benefited from surging world food demand, but it lags its neighbours in attracting investment as farmers complain about the government's unorthodox and hard-to-predict policies. The country is the world's No 1 soyameal and soyaoil exporter and its No 3 soyabean supplier. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) sees this season's soya output at 52 million tonnes, while the Argentine government sees up to 53 million. Farmers have sown 56 percent of the 19 million hectares (47 million acres) expected to be planted with 2011/12 soya, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday, while corn sowing is significantly more advanced.
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