MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay 2012/13 soybean crop was record in volume, area and yield

The crop reached 2.764.000 tons with an average yield of 2.634 kilos per hectare

Uruguay’s latest soybean crop was the highest in history, 2.76 million tons with an increase in the area planted and in yields according to the latest survey from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. The area dedicated to soybean climbed 20% and reached 1.049.000 hectares.

But the most outstanding record was in yields: 2.634 kilos per hectare, a significant increase over the previous crop with 2.390 kilos and from the ongoing average in the range of 2.000 kilos per hectare.

Government and farmers agreed that the unsatisfactory yields was one of the barriers to keep increasing land planted with soybeans but this last crop has swept aside the forecast. In effect the surge in area and yield helped with the largest crop in history: 2.764.000 tons of soy.

Agronomist Fernando Rincon responsible for the report from the Ministry’s Agriculture Stats office, DIEA, said that the high yield of the second harvest, 2.437 kilos per hectare compared to the 2.788 kilos of the first harvest, was crucial since “the difference is usually much greater”.

For this coming crop Rincon estimates that the area planted will have a floor of 950.000 hectares, although the definitive figure should be greater. For the last crop DIEA had estimated 883.700 hectares but finally it was 950.000 hectares.

The report also showed that corn managed the second highest yield in the last ten years with 5.648 kilos per hectare. The area planted was 121.500 hectares and the harvest reached 692.600 tons. Regarding sorghum the crop was down 56% compared to 2011/12 with not much difference in the yields. The area planted for this last crop was 48.500 hectares with an average yield of 4.262 tons per hectare and a total production of 208.900 tons.