16/12/04 SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--Brazil's 2004-05 soybean crop(October-September) will total 63.24 million metric tons, 28.5% higherthan the 49.20 million tons produced last year, the Brazilian CensusBureau, or IBGE, said Thursday.The second estimate for the current crop was slightly higher than the63.09 million tons forecast in November. The figure is lower than the 61.4million tons estimated by the Agriculture Ministry Tuesday, but lower thanthe U.S. Department of Agriculture figure of 64.5 million tons.Despite low prices and rising production costs, the bureau detected a6% increase in planted area to 22.8 million hectares.Area is growing because of the lack of other options, IBGE said in itsmonthly report. The main alternative crop, corn, has similarly low pricesand high costs but isn't as easy to sell.Summer corn production is expected to rise just 3.3% to 32.11 milliontons from 31.07 million tons last year.Summer-crop corn planted area is actually seen falling 1.2% to 8.96million hectares this year, but average yields are seen rising 4.5% to2,779 kg per hectare as corn recovers from a drought-affected 2004 crop.Brazil's grain, oilseed and cereal crop is expected to total 134.0million tons this season, up from 119.2 million tons last year.