‘Drastic change’ toward dryness threatens Argentine corn yields

Better-than-expected rains boosted Argentine wheat production this season but the weather panorama has changed “drastically” since mid-December, with dryness threatening corn crops just as they enter critical development stages, analysts said. Indeed, analysts might start marking down their record high 2021/22 corn harvest estimates if it gets too dry next month. “There is a risk of having to lower our corn production projection,” Esteban Copati, head analyst at the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange, said on Tuesday. The current forecast is for a record 57 million-tonne crop. “But we can’t confirm anything yet because late-planted corn could compensate for these potential yield losses in early-planted corn, as has happened in other seasons,” Copati added. The South American country is the world’s second biggest corn exporter and top supplier of soymeal livestock feed, used to fatten hogs and poultry from Europe to Southeast Asia. Argentine farmers have planted more than 81% of the ...