Rains delay

Sorry for having stopped posting for a while. As you may have already seen on the news, rains almost drowned us here. A great pity, few days ago this could have been our best season by far. This week, after a sequence of 2 to 4 sunny(or not so rainy) days, things are a little calmer and most of the damaged fields have been harvested.

I’ve been every day in the fields, raining or not, racing against the time, especially sampling soybeans still suitable for seeds. Not an easy task these days.

In 10-15 days we are done and I will be able to post again.
There are plenty of things to be said and shown.

02/25/2014, Campos de Julio – Mato Grosso.

 

Our little version of Mr.Jingles

Remember Mr.Jingles in “The Green Mile” film ?
Yesterday afternoon we had our little version of him.
Afraid of hawks that keep flying over harvested fields, he hided himself in between our feets while trembling in fear.

But please, sentimental reader, don’t get scared too. We didn’t crush him. The foot is over there just for the sake of the picture.

By the way…
Yields are still pretty good.

If there is a field of 80 bu/ac, this is it.

Commercial field of TMG4182 soybeans in Déciolandia, Mato Grosso.

When The Sun Comes After The Rain

…beautiful harvest day.

61,6 bu/ac – Call Me a Liar

TMG 4182 variety (conventional, resistant to multiple breeds of cyst nematodes) -> 2.517 acres harvested, 61,64 bu/ac. Some fields as high as 66 bu/ac where the record in recent years had been 51 bu/ac.

5 Grains Pod and Record Yields

An agronomist that works nearby just spotted this wonder yesterday: a FIVE grains pod!

Credits to Monise Tschope (Instagram: @motschope), who works for Amaggi Group, in Sapezal, Mato Grosso.

It’s something I had never seen and I am now completely envy of her. It’s also an expression of how weather conditions have been perfect along this season as soybean plants “decide” which pods to retain and seeds to fill. Yields have been record and this will be by far the best soybeans season ever in the west of Mato Grosso. Actually, reports are that this is alto true for the rest of Mato Grosso.

Great news!

On my way to the farm – An Indigenous Toll

Every week, on my way to the farm, I have to pay a toll for indians.

There is no other choice.
The road that passes over their land is the shortest one that connects Sapezal region(1.500.000 soybeans acres) to the rest of the state. Alternatives are unpractical and at least 100 miles longer.

Knowing that, they charge us on both directions, R$20 (about 8,50 US dollars) on cars or pickups, and R$50 (21,30 US dollars) on trucks.

Toll Receipt

Of course, the toll is unconstitutional, and disrespect the right to come and go of any brazilian citizen, but because the enforcement of the law could raise a riot, things stay as they are. In a certain way, everyone that lives around or has a business related to this region, is a hostage of the situation.

The indians aren’t obliged to provide any service in return, but with the road conditions so bad that the ordinary population attitude towards them has been anything but friendly, something different happened last week…they have started using a portion of the toll’s money on road repairs.

So unusual, that became a new of national level.

Highlight: INTACTA RR2 PRO™ hat

You can check the whole video report(and my fellow above advertising INTACTA), here.

Mato Grosso Soybeans Harvest Pictures and Early Numbers

The fun has started.
Firts fields, planted around September 25, are being harvested this week and yields have been great, particularly from new varieties that are resistant to multiple breeds of cyst nematodes. Numbers are few and I should not mention them yet(excitement mode on hold), but if confirmed on other areas they might mean a truly yield revolution in the west of Mato Grosso, a region where cyst nematodes have been causing yield losses of 10-20%(or even more) and are a bigger problem than on the rest of the state.

31 combines waiting to act in a seed field from Bom Futuro Group. Sapezal, Mato Grosso, Brazil. 2014/01/10

Helicoverpa Caterpillar Update

These pictures were taken yesterday morning and I think summarizes the scenario across all Mato Grosso.

Helicoverpa is here, everywhere, but easily under control. We have been more vigilant than usual, true, and spraying wherever is needed(some fields are on its 5th), but even the fields from some more reckless farmers are looking fine. This is quite unexpected and my guess is that it’s probably related to the high moisture conditions present in Mato Grosso, conditions that didn’t happen in Bahia last year, when this plague took control over there. Still, we should be aware that a dry spell(+15days) on january, in Mato Grosso, isn’t a rare event and would certainly make things harder, even though most of the potential loss is gone given soybeans late growth stage. Something odd, is that the Soybeans Looper(Pseudoplusia includens), a regular caterpillar, is the one causing problems this season.

Anyway, soybeans are looking great, much more than last year.

Helicoverpa Caterpillar – An Ongoing Fight

Three months ago, just before planting, we were scared on how the now famous Helicoverpa caterpillar would behave in our crops…

This motherf****r goes right in the pods

…scared because we knew that the pesticides currently allowed in Brazil do not control helicoverpa effectively. According to research and previous farm experiences in Bahia, they are only efficient until helicoverpa reaches about 0,5 inch. After that, they look more like vitamins to the caterpillars. Half an inch is a risky threshold and there wasn’t a safeguard, a last minute weapon, so we urged to the approval of emamectin benzoate, an effective inseticide available in more than 77 countries, including Australia, Argentina, USA, and Europe, but still under the stuck-in-the-mud brazilian government studies, who apparently judges itself much better than its international counterparts.

Meanwhile, and knowing that this approval could take months to come(or never come), Mato Grosso’s institutions and companies acted quickly to intruct farmers on how to monitore, recognize, and control this plague.  Constant monitoring has been the order since then and fortunately it has worked. We are now in the middle of 2013/14 soybeans season in Brazil. Early fields will start to be harvested next week and by now everything is under control in most places. Costs are higher but yields are not being affected.