The seeding process for the Brazilian soybean crop has just started in some regions of Brazil, as discussed in the last blog. Despite weather issues that worry producers, the nation’s ag agency projects an increase of 15% more production in all grains for the coming growing year.

The 2020/2021 harvest came to 9 billion bushels (250 million tons) produced by Brazilian farmers, but the coming year is expected to be 11 billion bushels (300 million tons).

Soybean farmers will seed almost 98 million acres for this next season, an increase of 2.3% compared to the last growing cycle. If achieved, it will be the largest soybean acreage in the country’s history with expected yields at 53 bu. per acre. Last year’s drought-damaged yield was still an average of 52.5 bu. per acre.

National production for the coming growing season is expected at 5 billion bushels, 3.7% more than last year’s record.

Planting is still slow in the states that have already started seeding soybeans. Despite recent rains, the humidity is low in some regions, so most producers are waiting on a better forecast to accelerate the process to avoid having to replant in a year where production costs increased significantly. It is still early, though, to start talking about delays since the planting season usually only ramps up in October.

A golden decade

The projection for the next 10 years shows that Brazil is trending towards grain production of over 500 million tons, all the while adding 73 million acres on top of the already existing 171 million grain acres. These new acres of production will come from areas that are already being used for animal pasture.

Brazil is on track to become the biggest grain producer and exporter in the world.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.