(NAFB) – Brazil’s second-corn crop was hit hard by frost during the final two days of June and the first day of July. Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
Dr. Michael Cordonnier, President of Soybean and Corn Advisor Incorporated, says Brazil hadn’t been that cold in decades.
He says the second-corn crop got planted later than it ever had before, was hurt by a historic drought in south-central Brazil, and by an early frost, including another round of frost this week. Cordonnier says this would be comparable to a mid-summer frost for U.S. corn farmers.
His yield estimates range from 115 bushels an acre for the best cornfields to zero bushels in the hardest-hit areas. Overall, Cordonnier says the frost this week only added to the level of disaster for Brazilian farmers.
Brazil’s domestic price for corn is $8.50 a bushel, which means exporters will pay the penalty to break their contracts and sell that corn on the domestic market for more money. He says Brazil will go from a corn exporter to importing a lot of corn, which means an opportunity is ahead for U.S. farmers.
Forecasts are calling for dry weather and delayed summer rains for the upcoming planting season in South America.