The second-crop corn harvest in Brazil continued to gain ground last week with close to half the total area now harvested, Curitiba-based agriculture consultancy Agrural said Monday.
By Thursday 4 July, 44% of the area was harvested, jumping 12 points in one week with progress double the same week last year when 16% of the crop had been harvested.
In the largest corn-growing province Mato Grosso, the harvest is now 60% complete, leading all other provinces in the centre and south of the country where the nation’s second crop is grown.
A colder spell in Parana over the weekend failed to dent the crop as it had already reached maturation, and overall weather conditions remained steady, allowing the crop to be efficiently brought in.
But falling temperatures in some central southern areas of the country might cause a slower harvest moving forward, Agrural said.
“Producers no longer complain about quality problems in any state of the region… falling temperatures throughout the Centre-South, however, tend to hinder the loss of moisture from the grains and this may result in a slower harvest than desired,” Agrural added.
Production estimates for the 2019 second-crop harvest have been kept unchanged at 75.7 million mt, almost 22 million mt than last year, but will be revised in the coming days, the consultants said.