El cultivo de soja es mas rentable que el maíz, ¿es un paradigma?

CALVIÑO, PA; SANCHEZ, M; ERMACORA, M; LENARDÓN, M, MONZON, JP

Rosario

Congreso; X Congreso Nacional de Maíz; 2014

AIANBA

I very few regions of Argentina the ratio of soybean to cereals is close to 1:1. The current rotation in most of the agricultural Pampas is not sustainable due to the low proportion of cereals. Between farmers it is installed the concept that soybean is the safest and most profitable crop across the Pampas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the crop yields and economic results of soybeans and maize in four agricultural regions of the Argentinean Pampas for two rotations differing in the proportion of soybean and maize. For maize we distinguished between early and late sown maize. We worked with on farm data for CREA groups for four locations: Marcos Juarez, Villa Valeria, Pergamino and Tandil and two soils for each region: a very good (MB) and one good (B) quality soil. For costs and incomes, we worked with the average of the 2004-2013 dollar price range for each month. The yield of soybean following soybean was lower than following maize for all the analyzed cases. This difference ranged from 630 kg ha-1 in Villa Valeria to less than 100 kg ha-1 for Tandil. The gross margin of a rotation with 50% maize and 50% soybean for the MB soils and for late sown corn was 17, 10, 19 and 14% higher for Marcos Juarez, Pergamino and Villa Valeria and Tandil, in comparison to a rotation with 80% soybean and 20% maize respectively. For B soils the gross margin followed a similar trend. And in early planting of maize we observed a similar trend for Marcos Juarez and Pergamino, but Villa Valeria only maintained this trend in soils B, and Tandil only in soils MB. The net margin of late sown maize in soils MB was always greater than soybean for the rotation with 80% soybean, except for Villa Valeria (heavily influenced by transport cost). For the four sites soybean in rotation with 50% maize had higher yields than with 20% maize. The results presented here showed that under the regions that we worked and for the "top farmers" the statement "SOYBEAN IS MORE PROFITABLE THAN CORN" is not valid, and the underlying reasons behind it seems to be the result of and incomplete analysis.