Ongoing cool and damp weather continues to delay a general start to the 2016 southern Queensland grain harvest and the slow start has caught many off-guard.
The pattern of regular, intermittent showers continued last week. Most farmers across southern Queensland received 5mm to 15mm of rain in scattered showers last week with Talwood recording 22mm. Fortunately, warmer temperatures after the brisk conditions in mid-October has triggered crops to start to dry down but it’s still expected to be another 10 to 14 days before there is a general start to grain harvesting across southern Queensland.
The slow start has come at a cost for some farmers who were expecting to harvest chickpeas in October and committed tonnages to traders. Chickpeas rallied by a further $60 a tonne last week to $1040 delivered into Brisbane last week as traders chased supplies to meet early sales commitments.
Cold weather has also slowed the pace of the Central Queensland chickpeas harvest where values jumped by more than $100 a tonne to $1020 port as traders scurried to secure tonnage against bulk shipments.
CQ chickpeas are also being transported into the Darling Downs and Brisbane, at a considerable expense, as traders chase supplies against early export commitments.
Problems are even worse in NSW where farmers are confronting a broader array of problems to their chickpea crops ranging from harvest delays, lower yields and in some cases complete crop losses.
The unseasonal weather is also raising concerns about the quality of the cereal harvest. Cereal yields are expected to be some of the best ever but it’s expected to come at a cost in terms of grain quality. Wheat protein levels are expected to be well below average with many traders now expecting ASW will be the dominant grade. Higher protein grades including APH are expected to be scarce because of the soft finish.
APW prices into Brisbane were little changed last week at $238, but there were some significant moves into the quality spreads. Premiums for higher protein wheat rallied last week as traders and end users move to secure supplies. APH 13 prices premiums have jumped to $50 above the benchmark APW more than double what it was at the start of the month. At the same time the ASW is being discounted by $20 below the APW price.
Darling Downs feed grain prices were lower last week. Stockfeed wheat into the Downs ended the week down $13 at $220 while feed barley was down $15 at $185. Farmer selling is non-existent at these levels.
There were reports that India bought at least 100,000 tonnes of Australian wheat in the past 10 days. India is thought to have secured as much as one million tonnes of wheat in the past month after the government lowered the duty on wheat imports. Most of this wheat has been bought from Ukraine but the attention is moving to Australian wheat.