Brazil’s largest grain producing state of Mato Grosso is expected to harvest up to 15 percent less of so-called second corn because of a drought, the president of a group representing farmers in the region. Mato Grosso farmers will collect an estimated 25 million tonnes of second corn this year. Mato Grosso produced almost 29 million tonnes of corn last season when the weather was nearly perfect. The state accounts for about 30 percent of Brazil’s total corn output in a given year. Brazil’s second corn, which is planted after soybeans as a rotation crop, already accounts for roughly 70 percent of the country’s entire corn production and made Brazil a strong competitor to the United States in global corn markets. This year, delayed soy planting and harvesting pushed back the sowing of second corn in some farms, especially in the south of Mato Grosso and in states like Paraná, making those regions more exposed to the perils of dryness.