Highlights
The Equatorial Pacific Surface Water temperature has dropped a half °C the past two reporting weeks and is now 1° below normal. That is why it is turning dry in Argentina and Southern Brazil and so very wet in Northern Brazil where 85% of their beans are grown. That much rain is great for the beans in that sandy soil until they are mature.
As you know, soybeans cannot be harvested when the stems are wet or even damp. Harvest will be delayed and the quality of the beans will decline. The delayed harvest will keep the export window open longer for US bean exports and make the second crop corn planted later. That will shorten its growing season, which ends when the rainy season ends in early May.
Brazil's bean harvest usually starts in late December, but not this year because the crop was planted two weeks later than normal and further delays from the persistent rain in the northern growing area.