After going through the worst drought in decades in the 2022/2023 campaign, late in the spring, with the arrival of El Niño and its abundant rains in most of the country, producers renewed their hopes and were excited about having revenge with the crops. summer this year.
But in the field,
everything is never said until the grains are harvested
and in a matter of days things can change radically.
This is precisely what is happening now in many Argentine locations where the lack of rainfall and high temperatures are causing significant damage to
corn and soybeans that are going through key stages
when it comes to defining yields.
What there a week ago promised to be a great harvest, today generates
sadness and fear
.
The heat does not let up and rain is just forecast for Wednesday or Thursday of next week.
The panorama is worrying.
Yesterday at noon, Francisco Mendiverri, agricultural producer of
Carlos Tejedor
, looked at his soybeans in a 20-hectare sandy lot and assured: "It is already delivered."
In five days it went from being "spectacular" to "liquidated
."
In this crop, with tall plants loaded with inflorescences, water stress caused "a brutal abortion of the flowers and practically nothing was left."
Tuesday January 30, 2024
With a week of almost 40° C and no rain in sight in that area, there is no possibility of recovery at the moment.
There they received about 170 millimeters between October and November, and 200 in December which, after the previous severe drought, failed to replenish the water reserves.
In any case, the corn and soybean crops planted on the first date were doing very well.
But in January only 50 millimeters fell, "
the tables turned
again" and the crops are already exhibiting symptoms of water stress.
"Until January 15 it was a story, we had been getting by with 10 millimeters of rain per week, but it was a matter of cutting them off and ending it. A crop that was up to your waist, with a huge plant structure, very loaded with flowers and practically nothing was left, the abortion of flowers was brutal, so that lot is about 20 hectares."
We will have to go look for the record harvest somewhere else
," he lamented. "The pineapple is going to be strong," he added.
Prime soybeans with water stress in Carlos Tejedor, January 30, 2024. Photo: Francisco Mendiverri.
The same soybeans, on Monday January 22, 2024. Photo: Francisco Mendiverri.
"What was projected is happening, in the
area of Pehuajó, Carlos Tejedor, Trenque Lauquen
, the crops look worse than last year," said the Agr. Engineer.
Juan Marsigliani of July 9.
Already on January 18, he had indicated that in the central west of the province of Buenos Aires the plants were going to enter their critical period, the stage in which the yield is defined, without expectations of short-term rains and without sufficient reserves. water.
"Be careful that
many beans are being counted ahead of time
," he warned in relation to the production projections of the oilseed for this year.
Soybeans with water stress Photo: Juan Marsigliani X.
In the
center of the province of Santa Fe
, Gustavo Canavese, producer and contractor of Angélica, reported that soybeans of maturity group 5 that are going through the reproductive stage (R5) are already affected.
"The worst days of the heat wave are yet to come. The
losses
compared to what was estimated up to 15 days ago, I don't think they will escape
20 to 30 percent
if it rains in less than 10 days, otherwise it will be worse," he calculated.
Soybeans with water stress in the center of Santa Fe. Photo: Gustavo Canavese X.
"Tremendous dry weather in
northern Córdoba
and several days of extreme heat are coming," wrote producer Mario Aguilar Benítez from the Las Chilcas establishment, accompanying his post in X with a photo of a corn crop stressed due to lack of water.
"I hope the change comes quickly because
there is nothing left over
," he said in reference to the urgent need for precipitation.
"I have hope that it will last, but there is not much left and there is no prognosis nearby," he added.
In his cattle field in the east of that province, the soils do not have the capacity to retain water.
"Here we depend on the regularity of the rains; in the north we can last longer because we have better soil and retention. In any case,
if the water does not arrive soon, we are in the oven
," he clarified.
Corn stressed due to lack of water.
Photo: Mario Aguilar Benítez, X.
"
The record harvest is coming... of debts
," said the Agricultural Production engineer and member of the CREA América group, Diego García Álvarez, showing a dry soybean plant in a field in the Buenos Aires town of
Villa del Sauce
.
"It didn't rain at all in 20 days and we came with zero reserves," he said.
And he stated that although all production will not be lost, "
in parts it will be zero
."
Soybeans with water stress in Villa del Sauce, Buenos Aires.
Photo: Diego García Álvarez.
"I have
lots of soybeans and corn that make me feel terribly sad
," said Alejo Devincenzo, a farmer from
Coronel Seguí
, a small town in northern Buenos Aires that belongs to Alberti's party.
Very close there, in Junín, the Gómez lagoon is completely dry.
"It makes you want to cry," said the producer.
So far,
it has more than 200 hectares affected
by water stress.
Soybeans with damage due to lack of humidity in Coronel Seguí.
Photo: Alejo Devincenzo.
"
Corn is losing a lot
, it needs urgent rain to finish grain formation and make grain weight;
first class soybeans
, with the dry season that exists, have already begun to abort flowers,
it will not exceed 2,000 kilos
and second class "He's at God's mercy, begging for rain now because he's lost," he explained.
Meanwhile, the second-season corn, which is currently flowering, is not forming ears, so it requires an imminent replenishment of water to avoid being lost.
The corn he planted to feed his animals is "
totally lost
," he said.
"We had second-grade corn to harvest and ensile, to make production for the winter, and I am seriously thinking these days about releasing the cows because the corn is being lost, it is completely drying out," he said.
"It's very sad," she said.
Lot of corn completely affected by water stress in Coronel Seguí.
Photo: Alejo Devincenzo.
Others do better
In other regions, the situation is a little more encouraging.
Engineer Matías Longinotti advises producers in the
district of General Arenales
and Junín, an area that covers 60 kilometers around the town of Ascensión.
"At this moment we are at a
turning point
. The crops with their first sowing date, both corn and soybeans, are not yet affected, but they no longer have much more moisture reserve, except for very specific lots that are lower, with influence of napa, which are the last to show water stress, but here we have not had any napa for two years," he told Clarín Rural.
Although he warned that the high temperatures anticipated for the next seven or eight days "will surely have an influence."
At the moment, "
the first-class corn is very good
, with tremendous potential, but it
may affect the filling
and the weight of the grain a little. It will not have a big impact on the yield, but it may affect something." , he detailed.
On the other hand,
late or second-grade corn
"
are complicated
, they are entering flowering and without water," she indicated.
The batches of
corn and soybeans that come from winter crops "are suffering a lot
," she said.
"The highest fields, the thickest lots, with coarseness, are the most complicated, where
you can already see the wilting
of the plants, especially in second-grade corn and soybeans," she said.
The opposite occurs in much of southern Buenos Aires.
In the area of
Las Armas and Maipú
, engineer Juan Pablo Martínez, partner of the EDM agronomic study of Balcarce, after a tour of the basin, reported: "
The coarse crop (soybeans, corn, sunflower) is very good
so far, they are already starting caterpillars on prime soybeans" that go through the R3 and R4 reproductive stages.
Soybeans in a very good state of development in Maipú.
Photo: Juan Pablo Martínez X.