November 10, 2014

In a move that reflects Brazil’s overall trend in crop sowing, one of the country’s biggest farm operators, SLC Agricola, announced plans to increase its soybean acreage for 2014/15 by 20,000 hectares to 363,754 hectares – an increase of 24%, and equal to an area larger than Washington DC. At the same time, SLC Agricola plans to decrease its acreage sown in corn by 12,000 hectares to 38,652 hectares as corn prices fall below the cost of production for many producers.  Corn acreage for the country is also being cut by a dry sowing season which has delayed soybean planting, in turn causing a probable late harvest, which will limit the window for planting a second, or safrinha corn crop. These conditions have driven officials from the Mato Grosso Corn and Soybean Producers Association to forecast that corn sowing in the state could fall by 30%, and have caused SLC Agricola’s main corn crop sowing for this time of year to be down by 64% to less than 5,000 hectares.  Despite lower acreage, SLC Agricola forecasts corn yields to recover and be up by 23% to 10.2 tons per hectare after crop performance for the previous season was negatively affected by dry weather.

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