Below-average rain forecast for Argentina's key farm areas in next three months

BUENOS AIRES, May 31 (Reuters) - Rainfall will likely be below normal in the western part of Argentina's agricultural heartland over the next three months, the country's National Weather Service said on Friday, forecasting normal to below-normal rainfall for the rest of the Pampas region.

The decrease in precipitation will occur during the closing of Argentina's 2023/24 soybean and corn harvest, and wheat planting for the new 2024/25 season.

Below-normal rainfall will be beneficial for Argentine farmers finishing the delayed soybean and corn harvest, and will allow wheat planting to move forward at a steady pace. Soil moisture for wheat is good.

The areas of Argentina's agricultural heartland that will see a greater drop in rainfall will be northwest Buenos Aires province, southeast Cordoba province and west Santa Fe province.

However, scarce rainfall could hamper wheat development late in the period, as well as cause delays or difficulties in the planting of soybean and 2024/25 corn in September and October.

According to the U.S. government weather agency NOAA, a La Niña weather phenomenon is expected in the Equatorial Pacific starting in June.

The atmospheric impact of La Niña - a warming of the surface temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean - in Argentina is a decrease in the usual precipitation levels.

Colder winter

For June to August, during the Southern Hemisphere winter, the National Weather Service said it foresees below-normal temperatures in much of Argentina's core agricultural area.

Cold weather would help combat the spread of leafhoppers, an insect that is a vector of diseases and caused serious damage to corn this season, because they do not tolerate temperatures below 4 degrees Celsius.

The National Weather Service report also forecast below-normal temperatures in the north and northeast of Argentina - which are more marginal agricultural areas, but where the highest number of leafhoppers was.

(Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Writing by Stéphanie Hamel; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)