11/10/04 SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--Brazilian farmers have planted just 1% oftheir potentially record 2004-05 (October-September) soybean crop due to alack of rain in the center-west region, local agricultural consultancyCeleres said Monday.At the same point last year farmers had planted 3% of their crop.Isolated rainfall in Mato Grosso, the main producing state and alsothe first to plant, were insufficient to sustain soy planting, said aweekly report.However, weather forecasts indicate heavier rains in these areas overthe next week, it added.Celeres estimates Brazilian soybean output at 64.2 million metrictons, some 26% higher than last season as yields return to normal.Farmers in Mato Grosso plant in early October to allow time for asecond corn or cotton crop. This practice also occurs in the states ofMato Grosso do Sul, Goias, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul, although weatherconditions have not allowed planting there this year.The Brazilian soybean season typically picks up pace in the secondhalf of October.Sales of Brazil's 2003-04 crop moved forward two percentage pointslast week and now encompass 80% of the crop. But sales remain well behindlast year, when 89% was sold and a five-year average of 98% sold.Producers were forced to sell with many harvest costs coming due onOct. 15, said the report.The forward soybean sales market was extremely quiet this week. Only9% of the 2004-05 harvest has been sold, compared with 41% at the samestage last year.With sales of this year's and next year's crop so far behind schedule,farmers are worried how they will finance the next season, said Celeressoy analyst Anderson Galvao Gomes.Brazil is the world's No. 2 producer and exporter of soybeans.