SAO PAULO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Light showers fell over Brazil's grain belt over the weekend and are likely to continue throughout the week as farmers sow what could be a record soybean crop, local forecaster Somar Meteorologia said on Monday.
Top soybean-producing states Mato Grosso and Parana have each received about 25 millimeters (1 inch) of rain in the past four days and should get an additional 10 millimeters this week, Somar meteorologist Celso Oliveira said.
The first rain in months late last week spurred farmers to start planting what the U.S. Agriculture Department sees as a record 81-million-tonne soybean crop. That was a 10-day jumpstart on planting from the previous season.
But Brazil, which could replace the drought-stricken United States as the world's top soybean producer this year, has still received relatively little rain, given soil conditions after a dry August, Oliveira said.
"It's still not very much rain, but people are planting anyway," he told Reuters. "The tendency is for heavier rains to start in Parana the following week (Oct. 1), but in Mato Grosso, they will only start after Oct. 15."
Somar feeds weather outlooks to local media, companies and government studies in Brazil.
Though farmers are ahead of last year's planting schedule for soybeans, with 0.6 percent of Mato Grosso state sown as of Friday according to the privately-owned Mato Grosso Institute for Agricultural Economy, they are slightly behind on corn.
Only 11.6 percent of the total expected area to be planted for the summer crop has been sown, 1.6 percentage points less than last year, Minas Gerais-based analyst Celeres said in a report on Monday.
CORN LAGS
In Rio Grande do Sul, 25 percent of the corn crop has been planted compared to 33 percent from a year earlier due to dry soil. Rains generally come first to southern Brazil and Corn planting has not yet started farther north in Mato Grosso.
Planting the main summer corn and soybean crops as early as possible allows them to be harvested between December and February, giving farmers ample time to plant a second corn or cotton crop.
Brazil is now the world's No. 3 corn exporter, thanks mostly to increased output from the winter crop. That crop, known as the safrinha, grew by 70 percent this year from a year earlier and the government says 2011/2012 corn exports should reach a record 16 million tonnes.
Celeres expects Brazil's 2012/2013 corn production to be a record 76.44 million tonnes, betting on a second consecutive jump in winter corn output.
CBOT November soy SX2 traded below the $16 per bushel level for the first time in almost 11 weeks on Monday, while December corn CZ2 was down 0.9 percent at $7.41 a bushel after private estimates showed the U.S. harvest might not be as bad as originally thought.
