CHICAGO, March 2 (Reuters) - Informa Economics lowered its forecast of Brazil's 2011/12 soybean crop to 68 million tonnes from its previous estimate of 70 million, trade sources said on Friday.
Informa officials had no comment on the numbers, but in a report to clients the private analytical firm attributed the cuts to warm and dry weather in southern Brazil that stressed soybean crops during pod setting, a key phase of growth.
However, Informa raised its forecast of Argentina's 2011/12 soybean harvest to 47.5 million tonnes from 46.5 million previously, citing timely rains in February that benefited late-seeded soybeans.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected Brazil's soybean crop at 72 million tonnes and Argentina's crop at 48 million tonnes. USDA is scheduled to release updated U.S. and world crop forecasts on March 9.
Informa left its forecast of Argentina's 2011/12 corn crop unchanged from last month at 22.5 million tonnes.
USDA's current estimate for Argentine corn production is 22 million tonnes. Informa raised its forecast of new-crop 2012/13 corn production in Ukraine to 24 million tonnes, up from 22.5 million last month.
The firm said it expected that some 3.5 million hectares initially planted to winter grains in Ukraine would be reseeded to spring crops following poor emergence and damage from bitterly cold temperatures in late January into mid February.
