Brazil corn, soybean forecasts reduced

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  Brazil has reduced its forecast for corn and soybean harvests this year.

  From WATTAgNet:
  Brazil has reduced its forecast for corn and soybean harvests this year, citing too much rain in some areas and too little rain in others.
  Officials cut the soybean estimate by 1.32 million tons to 93.26 million tons. Evidence from the first 20 percent of the harvest shows some signs of damage to yields.
  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to reduce its forecast for Brazilian soybeans by 500,000 tons to 94 million tons, and its corn forecast by 380,000 tons to 74.62 million tons.
  “Rainfall irregularities” in Mato Grasso do Sul caused that region’s forecast by 385,000 tons to 3.45 million tons. Dry conditions in Parana lowered the forecast there, and “excess rainfall” in Rio Grande do Sul has “compromised” crop conditions by encouraging fungal disease Asian rust.
  In Minas Gerais, “absence of rains in January” caused a “substantial reduction” in production expectations, although recent rainfall has been encouraging. In Goias, rains in February were “not sufficient to mitigate the effects of the long period of drought” that came before the precipitation.
  Rainfall has been especially heavy in Santa Catarina, which means farmers will need to spend more to dry their grain, or crops will be damaged by the weather.