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Farmers say crops in Argentina continue to struggle

A group of Indiana farmers visiting Argentina say the country’s soybean crop has a challenging road ahead.  Central Indiana farmer Mark Legan of Coatesville says the crop is late.  “We’re seeing varying stages of development,” he says. “We’ve seen soybeans in particular that have just been planted, I can’t remember a time in the last 35 years and I held off planting because it’s been too dry.”

Legan says the crop should be in the same growth stage as late-July soybeans in the US.  “They should be setting a lot of pods on the soybean plants, the corn should be tasselling,” he says.  “About the tallest corn we’ve seen is knee-high or maybe waist-high.  But they are hurting there’s no doubt about that.”

Ed Ebert is the senior director of market development for the Indiana Soybean Alliance, he says this is one of the worst soybean crops he’s seen in numerous visits to the country. “It’s browner, it’s less green and you can see more unplanted areas, or maybe recently planted areas than I’ve ever seen in any of my travels down here,” he says.

Argentina is the top exporter of soybean products in the world and is one of the United States’ biggest competitors on the global market.