Trade Keeps Close Eye On South America Drought

Feb 11, 2022

With the release of the USDA WASDE report this week, there was plenty of talk surrounding the weather in South America.

Dan Basse is President of AgResource Company in Chicago.

"It's one of the worst droughts we can find looking backwards in four decades. Southern Brazil, Argentina have been enduring drought going all the way back now to the middle of November. That drought looks to persist. The forecasts are dry for at least another couple of weeks," he said. "Crop numbers are declining and we would expect USDA and future reports to make those adjustments also. Ultimately, we think there may be another nine million metric tons fall in the Brazilian crop, maybe another three or four in Argentina and two in Paraguay."

Basse says that will add up to about another fourteen million metric tons and that will probably get us close to where we need to be with soybeans trading just below $16 a bushel in Chicago.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

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