Regular start to soya bean and maize harvest for Frederico Rolle
Despite last week’s rain, I harvested a small 15ha plot of soya bean (4% of my area), which yielded 2t/ha – 40% less than last year. I believe this will be the lowest and am hoping that by the end of the season, yield will be only 20% down on last year.
At the country level, soya bean harvest progress is limited with only 1.7% of the total area cut. However, the average yield is low at 1.7t/ha, while last year ended with an average of 2.7t/ha.
Regarding maize, I have not yet started cutting on my 73ha, but some of my neighbours are reporting yields of 3.5-5t/ha compared with 7-8t/ha last year. Drought is the reason for the lower yields as the cobs failed to fill, and where they did, grains were underweight.
With the low maize yields, the economic result is a loss for those who lease fields (70% of agricultural land in Argentina is leased). With an estimated average yield of 6t/ha, it will generate a small income for growers with their own fields. But those leasing fields will make a loss as they pay an average rent of $500/ha and must achieve 8t/ha to break even.
One strategy to prevent this is to arrange rents as a percentage of output production (as in my case I pay 36% for rent) instead of a fixed rate/ha. It helps cover risk in years of adverse weather, thereby, mitigating economic losses.
