Brazilian soybean planting for the 2020-21 crop year (September-August) had been progressing at a swift pace since mid-October following adequate rainfall across mid-western regions and had entered the home stretch in most regions due to recent rainfall, agricultural consultancy AgRural said Dec. 14.
Brazilian soybean farmers had planted 95% of the total estimated area up to Dec. 10, against 90% a week earlier and 96% at the same point last year, according to AgRural.
Soybean planting had finished in the core regions and had entered final stretches in the Matopiba, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, the consultancy said.
A healthy soybean harvest pace was expected to put short-term pressure on US prices, which had been on an upswing on export optimism, tightening supply of soy and South American weather concerns, analysts said.
CBOT soybean January futures prices were trading 20 cents higher week on week at $11.7138/bushel on Dec. 14 at 7:30 am CDT.
Although soybean planting seemed to have caught up with both last year's and the five-year average pace of soy planting, dry weather and high temperatures in most regions of Brazil had stoked concerns about lower production.
However, according to AgRural, sufficient rainfall in the week ending Dec. 12 had improved soil moisture conditions in the Midwest, Paraná and South-East regions.
Soybean crops require abundant rainfall and high soil moisture content during the planting and crop development stages, meaning dry weather slows the process.
With extensive dry weather in September and early October, Brazilian soy planting got under way at the slowest pace in a decade, leading to concerns of a delay to the harvest.
Brazil's soybean harvest generally begins between late January and early February, but a delayed planting could push the harvest date a little further out.
AgRural estimated Brazilian soybean acreage for 2020-21 at 38.3 million hectares, up 3.6% year on year, and production at 131.6 million mt -- down 0.6 million mt on the previous estimate, but still an all-time high volume.
