Jandowae district farmer John Alexander says this summer is one of the most challenging growing seasons he has experienced.
The upbeat farmer said the only other season as difficult was in 2010, when he was trying to nurse his winter crop through due to too much rain.
Mr Alexander and his wife Jill farm on Walmer, their home-base in the Jandowae district, and at Carnamah at nearby Jimbour.
The couple planted 46 hectares of sorghum consisting of three of the later maturing varieties; Nu-Seed Enforcer, NS Ripper, and Heritage HS114, in the middle of October.
“We planted on the back of one rainfall event which gave us surface moisture, plus about 80 centimeters of sub-soil profile,” he said.
“The forecast for rain was promising at the time, and we had good planting conditions.
“However, since then we have had little in-crop rain, with the largest fall registering 15 mm in the gauge.”
“But so far, we have received half of our long term rain average.”
Mr Alexander is now about to spray out his crop out, and predicts he will start harvesting next week.
He said he was bracing for a disappointing harvest result.
“It is not looking good, and it is really tough to guess what the sorghum will yield, but I hope to achieve about 3.5 tonne/hectare,” he said.
“That really is in stark contrast to our long-term average of 6.5 tonne/hectare.”
Adding to the heartbreak of the lack of in-crop rain, the couple can add unrelenting blistering summer heat and damage to the crop from the migration of the Rutherglen bugs.
“The continuous wave after wave of Rutherglen bugs is unusual, but they are coming in from the west in search of grass and crop.”
The Alexanders normally market their sorghum as nutritional feed to feedlots, piggeries, and chicken farmers, plus the ethanol plant in the South Burnett region.
Mr Alexander said they don’t usually sell onto the export market unless the prices are “ridiculously hot”.
“We will wait and make our marketing decisions once it is harvested and know what we have in the silo, but hope to achieve $200/tonne ex-farm.
“It will all depend on the quality.”