All Eyes on South America

In a year when China’s appetite for feed grain is disrupting corn and soybean balance sheets worldwide and drought brought on by La Niña is hurting yields across the region, South America’s growing season bears watching closely. The region’s importance to global supplies was underlined in the USDA’s November WASDE report, which nearly doubled the estimate for Chinese corn imports in the upcoming year.

Technical Review 

As a follow up to our webinar on South America's growing season, Gro hosted a technical review of our Brazil and Argentina Yield Models for corn and soy. The technical review discusses how we built the models and model features, model performance as backtested, and the use of crop masks. We also look at an analysis of how different yield scenarios in South America will impact global balance sheets and prices.

Related Resources

La Nina & South America Display

Brazil Soy Yield Monitor

Brazil Soy Yield Monitor - Rondonopolis

Argentina Soy Yield Monitor

Argentina Soy Yield Monitor - Caseros

Gro Supply & Demand Corn Balances
Gro Supply & Demand Soybean Balances

Land Cover in Brazil and Argentina for Corn and Soybeans (API Only)

In This Webinar We Will Discuss

  • The threat of drought and dry conditions and the impact on production forecasts 
  • How La Niña is affecting Argentina's and Brazil's newly planted corn crops
  • The links between China's rebounding hog herd and feed demand, and corn and soybean yields in South America

Speakers

Jonathan Haines
Senior Research Analyst
Jon has been working in agricultural commodities trading and research for the past 14 years, covering both grains and softs. Before joining Gro, he served as a portfolio manager at Jamison Capital Partners where he was responsible for the firm’s agriculture trading strategy. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and is a CFA charterholder.
Yiqing Cai
Senior Data Scientist
Yiqing has been a data scientist at Gro for five years, developing agricultural models using machine-learning techniques. Before joining Gro, Yiqing was a postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota. Yiqing holds a B.S. in Mathematics from University of Science and Technology of China, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science from University of Pennsylvania.