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Meteorologist watching South America

The lead atmospheric scientist with Nutrien Ag Solutions says he’s keeping a close eye on the weather in South America.  

Eric Snodgrass says conditions in that area have varied.

“We’ve had a very fast plant north and that’s been because in Mato Grosso and Brazil’s central and northern growing areas, there has been plenty of rainfall. The risk for drought has been farther south in pockets of southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and into Argentina. Argentina just recently saw some rain, but it didn’t undo the drought risk there. The problem is this La Nina is still strong now and it’s going to continue to make drought problems worse in southern Brazil and Argentina,” he says. “The recent models double down on the drought risk. South America had huge potential but the only place it’s really realizing right now is northern growing areas with fast plant.”

He tells Brownfield conditions could change if the La Niña climate pattern subsides.

“If we do lose La Niña midway through, we could completely flip it on it’s head. When that safrinha crop goes in, we’ll be talking about drought on that and all the rain coming into Argentina,” he says. “There was potential for South America to hit huge numbers this year, but I think I’d be concerned with how the weather is going.”

Snodgrass says South America will continue to be top of mind, with reports that Brazil has 400 million acres that could be converted from pastureland to farmland.