Brazil’s farmers have struggled with too much rain in the north and not enough in the south. Dr. Michael Cordonnier of Soybean and Corn Advisor, Inc., says the dry weather in Brazil stretches well into Argentina.

“Oh yes, absolutely. You know, in Argentina, they did have some beneficial rains over about 40 percent of the area. Northern and southern areas have missed out. Now, there may be another batch of rain next week, and the condition of the crops in Argentina declined again. Soybeans are now rated 17 percent good to excellent, down three points. Corn is rated 25 percent good to excellent, down three points. Now the soil moisture improved somewhat, but the forecast is calling for hotter than normal temperatures, so there will be a lot of evaporation.”

After struggling with the corn leaf hopper last year, Argentina farmers are seeing much less pest pressure.

“This year, they got lucky. There is virtually no problem. There’s a little bit up in the northern provinces of Argentina, but in central Argentina, it’s sort of a non-issue. It might be more of an issue in Brazil this year than in Argentina, so they got lucky in that aspect. There are no leaf hoppers, but they were unlucky with hot and dry weather.”

Cordonnier says Argentina production has been falling for some time.

“My Argentine estimates have been going down week by week by week because each state’s dry. Brazil has been sort of stabilized in soybeans for quite a long time, but I did lower my Brazil corn by two million due to delayed planting.”

Earlier this week, he bumped up Brazil’s soybeans to 171 million tons. Argentina’s corn and bean crops were each cut by one million tons.