DÍAS POSIBLES DE SIEMBRA TARDÍA DE MAÍZ EN DIFERENTES REGIONES AGRÍCOLAS DE ARGENTINA

CALVIÑO, P.A.; MONZON, J.P.

Rosario

Congreso; X Congreso Nacional de Maíz; 2014

AIANBA

During the last years the area of late sown maize has increased significantly in different regions of Argentina. The aim of this study was to determine the possibility of having adequate soil moisture conditions to sown late season maize in different locations of Argentina. For each location the ideal dates for late maize plantings were determined based on surveys to renowned professionals. In all cases, the ideal sowing window was 10 days and 16 days for the extended window. The locations were studied individually and in groups. Daily climate data for the period 1983-2011 was used and we divided locations into three regions, North, Central and South. For the extended planting window (16d) the percentage of possible days to sown with adequate soil moisture were: i) North Region: 51, 60, 64, 62, 47, 68, 59 and 72% for Gualeguaychú, Laboulaye, Marcos Juarez, Paraná, Pergamino, Pilar, Rafaela and Rio Cuarto respectively; ii) for the Central region 44, 47 and 51% for Anguil, Gral Pico, Pehuajó, respectively; and iii) for the South region, 46, 54 and 40% in Azul, Balcarce and Barrow respectively. On average, Central and South regions have lower values than the North (47% vs 60%). The probability of having good soil moisture did not differ markedly between the ideal and the extended sowing windows. For the ideal sowing window (10d) the locations with the lowest values were Anguil and Barrow with only 43 and 33% of adequate days, respectively. We found that for most of the analyzed locations, late plantings have a considerable risk of sowing failure. Only Río Cuarto, Pilar, Marcos Juarez and Paraná have more than 60% of days with adequate moisture to sown. This information is highly valuable to plan sowing operations.