Until last week, half of the soil in the province of Buenos Aires was in conditions of water deficit, something that, according to the Rosario Stock Exchange (BCR), had not happened for 15 years, with a drought that worsened in the north and center of the province. However, rains that occurred in the last days of July, which left accumulations of more than 30 millimeters in 40% of the Buenos Aires territoryallowed the recharge of the edaphic profiles, leaving only 5% of the soils in a drought condition.
But not all the provinces of the core zone suffered the same fate, since rainfall did not reach Córdoba, Santa Fe or the extreme northeast of Buenos.
According to the BCR, in the short term there will be no relevant changes in the water supply. “We will have to wait for the advance of the new month to see if another entry of warm and humid air extends a little further towards the center of the country, allowing some recovery of the level of rains over the center of the core region equivalent to that of Buenos Aires”, explained from the entity.
The first week of August will present stable weather throughout the core region and in much of the country. Only during the day Thursday 4 there could be some rains and storms with scarce and punctual accumulations. As for the temperatures, from the BCR they anticipated that they will be in accordance with the time of year, with minimums not as rigorous as in previous weeks. The entry of a mass of cold and dry air in the center of the country, later in the week, will cause a temperature drop, with the development of some weak to moderate frosts.
In this stage, the wheats of the core zone in fair and poor conditions exceed 300,000 ha. “We need about 40 mm before August 15 so that the wheat does not begin to lose yield potential,” they reported from the town of Carlos Pellegrini. for the BCR While in Colón, “20 to 30 mm are needed in the coming days to face the moments of greatest requirements and complement with rains in August and September to maximize yields,” said engineers in the area.
Meanwhile, in Bombal, already closing the wheat planting window, it is estimated that the cereal area will reach 1.3 million hectares, 400,000 less than in 2021.
According to the BCR, in a large part of the core region “it has not been possible to play the last card, that of short cycles due to lack of water” as the crop would not be able to achieve its production potential.
On the other hand, due to the scarcity of water, fertilization levels will be much lower than last year. Likewise, “the high costs of fertilizers limited the doses and lower potential yields are expected than last year,” they pointed out from the BCR.
The early corn, about the hour
According to technicians from the BCR’s Strategic Management of Agriculture (GEA) region, the area destined for early maize will depend, as a last resort, of the occurrence or not of rains during the month of August. “It is necessary that they accumulate more than 100 mm and well distributed to correctly moisten the profile” in the Bigand area, they affirmed.
