2022 Winter Wheat Crop in Southern Brazil Varies by Location

The condition of the 2022 Brazilian wheat crop in southern Brazil varies by location. The western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul was hit by a frost last week when 12% of the wheat was flowering and 1% was filling grain. Wheat is very sensitive to frost at that stage of development and damage assessments are ongoing.

In other regions of the state such as the municipality of Condor in north-central Rio Grande do Sul, a frost did not occur and the wheat is rated in good condition. The wheat in that municipality is in vegetative development and farmers are expecting yields in the range of 60 sacks per hectare (53 bu/ac), maybe even as high as 80 sacks (71 bu/ac) if the weather cooperates.

The other big wheat producing state in Brazil is Parana and the wheat in that state is 21% in vegetative development, 22% flowering, 39% filling grain, 18% mature, and 2% harvested as of earlier last week. The wheat in Parana was rated 3% poor, 17% average, and 80% good. There was no frost in Parana last week, but more cold weather is forecasted for southern Brazil.

The Brazilian National Weather Service (Inmet) is forecasting another strong cold front to move into southern Brazil over the next week bringing with it another chance of a moderate to strong frost.

Low temperatures also impacted some of the early planted 2022/23 corn in Rio Grande do Sul. The cold conditions slowed the germination and resulted in lower vigor for the corn. Less than 10% of the corn has been planted in the state and farmers will now wait for warmer temperatures to continue planting their corn.

Tags: corn, condition, Brazil, wheat, yields, crop