Sorghum prices rocketed higher last week as buyers boosted efforts to lock in purchases amid the tumbling crop prospects.
Unseasonably hot weather over the past 45 days has taken a toll on sorghum crops. Traders now expected the final Queensland crop will fall well short of ABARES most recent forecast of close to one million tonnes.
Early sorghum harvesting in Southern Queensland has revealed disappointing yields and high screenings. Farmers have been reporting below average yields with most crops struggling to achieve the normal ‘sorghum 1’ quality standards because of small grain size and high screenings.
Buyers stepped into the market last week to secure supplies amid fears crop ideals will continue to fall. Even the higher screening sorghum has been well sought after, with birdseed buyer’s ready buyers.
Sorghum prices soared by as much as $25 a tonne last week to more than $260 delivered Brisbane with similar gains seen in Darling Downs markets.
Central Queensland sorghum bids were also sharply higher as the ripple effect from the soaring Downs and Brisbane markets, lifted bids. CQ farmers are turning their sights on the 2017 winter crops, with time quickly running out to seed summer crops, such as sorghum. Apart from the occasional isolated storm, most areas are void of soil moisture which has farmers steering away from summer crops, like sorghum, this year.
Without a dramatic change in the current weather patterns, the majority of Queensland’s 2017 sorghum crop will have to come from the Darling Downs, where scorching temperatures and limited rain is cutting yield prospects by the day.
Weeks of blistering temperatures approached boiling point on the weekend, which may be the final straw for some sorghum crops. Temperatures at Dalby, in the heat of the Darling Downs, climbed into the 40s Celsius on Saturday and Sunday.
Cooler temperatures are forecast to reach southern Queensland on Monday after a record breaking heatwave on the weekend. Gatton, Oakey, Toowoomba and Kingaroy had their hottest days since records began, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
But much of the damage is already done to yields and sorghum quality. Farmers are saying, that even with soaking rain now, sorghum crops are not likely to fully recover.
The extent of crop losses on the Southern Queensland sorghum crop is debatable, but it’s clear that yields will fall well short of longer term averages, with limited volume likely to come Central Queensland.
Southern Queensland cereal prices were supported from last week’s sharp jump in sorghum values. Stockfeed wheat bids climbed by $16 to $242 delivered into Downs markets while feed barley was $12 higher at $210.
Wheat and feed barley bids into the Downs markets are currently $25 higher than the harvest lows in November which sorghum values are up by around $40 over the same period.
World wheat markets also received a boost last week following a supportive USDA monthly supply and demand estimates report.
Benchmark US wheat futures jumped by 4 per cent after the USDA lowered its estimates for both United States and world wheat stocks. Nonetheless, it’s still difficult to get overly friendly towards world wheat prices without some significant production mishaps, with the US still expected to be holding 31 million tonnes of wheat at the end of June.
