The first 10 days of January, and the last couple of December, have been a good period of rainfall for much of central and northeastern Brazil. These areas have had continuous dryness and drought issues all season long and forecasts for soybean production have fallen from the record levels forecast at the beginning of the season. Subsoil moisture continues to be the biggest issue. With inadequate rains to start the season, the holdover from the dry season has meant subsoil moisture levels are very low for much of Brazil outside of the far south, which had flooding issues earlier this season. It has improved significantly over the last week, and this point of the season is the best that subsoil moisture has looked all season long, but it is inadequate for the coming safrinha (second-season) corn crop, which will start to be planted in higher numbers later this month. 

As shown in Figure 1, there is a lot more stress on the crops in Brazil in January 2024 compared to January 2023. Of particular note is the stress that is in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, two of the larger soybean and corn production areas in west central Brazil. In contrast, crop stress is much lower this year in Rio Grande do Sul

A screenshot of maps showing different regionsDescription automatically generated

Figure 1. Maps of Crop Stress in Brazil, January 2024 and January 2023

EarthDaily Agro, a division of Canada-based EarthDaily Analytics, said data suggests Brazilian...