Brazil’s Safrinha Corn Crop Gets Bigger

Thanks to timely rains in April and May, Brazilian farmers are harvesting what could be a record-breaking Safrinha corn crop. Soybean and Corn Advisor agronomist Dr. Michael Cordonnier says yields are climbing, though wet weather is slowing harvest progress. “It is going to be a very big Safrinha corn crop at 130 million tons or more. I’ve been raising my estimate every couple of weeks, and the harvest is just barely getting started,” said Cordonnier. Harvest delays are being caused by high seed moisture and limited drying infrastructure, especially in southern states like Parana. “They don’t have much on-farm storage, much less drying capacity, so they’d rather have a dry down in the field. Normally, this time of the year, mid-June, it’s bone dry, but not this year.”