South America Calling

Despite La Nina conditions that typically lead to drier weather in southern Brazil and a delay to the wet season in central Brazil, rainfall during the last week and forecast for the coming week are favoring a good start to full-crop corn and first-crop soybean planting.

La Nina will kick off the 2022-23 crop year in South America for the third consecutive season. La Nina typically leads to heat and moisture stress for much of the continent's growing regions. However, forecasts suggest La Nina will lose strength midway through the crop year...

The start to the wet season in central Brazil usually comes in the last few days of September. Models suggest there may be some rains next week ahead of its official start.

Weather conditions in South America during the spring planting season offer some mixed signals but point more toward a hot and dry start for most areas in the 2022-2023 season.

Weather during the safrinha season quickly turned from favorable to unfavorable in central Brazil, but opposite from unfavorable to favorable in southern Brazil, balancing some of the poorer conditions farther north.

Though corn is much further in its development this year than last, the next round of frost could be more widespread than in May and may cause more damage.

A front that has been stalled across Paraguay and southern Brazil since last week will finally move north with some showers next week. Unfortunately, it'll be too little too late for most of the crop.

Drought has been plaguing central Brazil's second-season (safrinha) corn crop for the last several weeks. With much of the crop headed toward maturity, time is running out for rainfall to provide any relief.

Southern Brazil has escaped the greatest risk of frost this week thanks to cloud cover and elevated winds. Skies clear out and calm down for Friday and Saturday, which may still bring morning frost to portions of southern Brazil's safrinha corn crop.

Cold air moving into southern Brazil next week could bring risks of frost to an otherwise good start to the safrinha corn season.

The lack of rain since April 16 and limited rainfall for a few weeks prior has soil moisture at critical levels for parts of the primary safrinha (second-crop) corn growing areas in central Brazil. The early start to the dry season may cause production declines in Brazil's...

While dryness will hurt corn in central Brazil for the foreseeable future, increased precipitation in southern Brazil and Argentina during the next 10 days should put wheat into a good situation prior to winter.

The distinct end of the wet season in central Brazil can vary wildly, but usually ends the first couple of days of May. La Nina tends to hasten that end by about a week. This year, it will be more than two.

While the safrinha (second-season) corn crop in Brazil has gotten off to a good start, causing production estimates to increase, that may be too optimistic as dryness that has shown up over the last month could have lasting impacts.

The safrinha (second-season) corn crop in Brazil has gotten off to a good start. But there are concerns that linger for the remainder of the season.

Showers will continue to move through Brazil during the next 10 days but may not be as intense as they likely need to be in central states while southern states see some additional drought improvement.

The wet season is winding down in central Brazil and is falling off rather rapidly in March. Southern Brazil and Argentina are still finding some weather systems moving through to bring showers, but they will be spottier on any heavy amounts. Corn in Brazil and both corn and...

After a period of good rainfall in Argentina and southern Brazil, a front moving into southern Brazil will shut off the spigot, leaving both regions drier for the next week and likely beyond.

A rainy period across drought areas in Argentina and southern Brazil is stabilizing crops and offering some improvement to soil moisture, but the rains will not be enough to make up for dryness that has consumed much of South America this year.

The month of March will not be the end-all, be-all for the second corn crop in Brazil but may cause some concerns for producers if the forecast verifies.