2022/23 Argentina soybean estimates continue to decline

The question in Argentina is – how low can it go? The high temperatures of the last 10-15 days were very detrimental to the crops in Argentina. For the early planted soybeans that were filling pods or approaching maturity, the high temperatures and lack of moisture essentially ended the growing season. In the core production areas, the early soybean yields are expected to be down as much as 50% although the later planted soybeans may do better in areas where the rainfall was more plentiful. It is probably safe to say that the nationwide soybean yield will be down 25% or more. The current soybean harvest is probably less than 1%. Not only are the soybean yields going to be very low, the number of abandoned hectares is going to be very high. The Rosario Grain Exchange estimated last week that there may be as much as 2.6 million hectares of soybeans abandoned (6.4 million acres), which would be a record amount and equal to approximately 15-16% of the planted acreage, depending on how ...