Weather impacts Uruguay beef production
Weather in the southern hemisphere winter last year took a toll on Uruguay’s beef production; the country is seventh in world beef exports. The cold temperatures limited grazing activity, which translated to reduced yields and reduced exports; exports for 2007 were down to around 381,000 tons according to the National Meat Institute of Uruguay. The chart above shows the national temperature forecast and summary for Uruguay last winter. The bars indicate the long range weekly year over year change in temperature (C) as forecasted by Weather Trends International one year in advance, and the line is the observed year over year temperature change. For exports to rebound from the low levels seen in 2007, warmer weather is needed in 2008. The Weather Trends outlook for May through August 2008 is for a pattern to develop that will be consistently warmer than what was seen for the same months in 2007.
