Brazil Soy Planting 2% Done

Brazil's soybean planting season is off to a slow start compared with last year, but early progress is in line with the five-year average, according to the private crop consultant Safras & Mercados

According to Safras, by the week ending Oct 18, producers had planted 2% of the expected national crop – which the firm sees hitting a record 48.2 million metric tons. By this week last year, 5% of the crop had been planted.

Hot, dry weather has slowed planting in the Southeast and Center-West regions over the past several weeks, said Safras in a bulletin published over the weekend.

The No. 1 soy state, Mato Grosso, in the Center-West region, had planted 5% of its expected crop area by last Friday compared with 10% by this week a year ago. No. 4 state, Goias, had planted 1% compared with 8% last year at this time.

Northern Mato Grosso got some "favorable" rains late last week, which should boost planting progress this week, Safras said. In addition, Brazilian meteorologists expect cold fronts to bring more widespread rain over production areas this week and again next week.

Editors note: Richard Brock, Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.

To see more market perspectives, visit Brock's Web site at www.brockreport.com.