Widespread thunderstorms across southern Queensland last week stalled grain harvesting.
Rainfall amounts were varied with the heaviest falls occurring across the western Downs and Maranoa. Thunder storms dropped a general 15mm to 20mm through the Goondiwindi, Talwood, Surat, Meandarra and Miles areas towards the middle of last week. Isolated areas received up to 30mm.
Falls were generally lighter in the inner Downs with 5mm to 10mm through the Dalby, Macalister, Jandowae, Pittsworth and Clifton areas. There were isolated heavier storms, with Oakey receiving 30mm which half of this in a heavy storm on Sunday.
The widespread storms stalled grain harvesting across Southern Queensland which is still in its early stages.
Farmers are keen to see an extended period warm, dry weather to make some headway into harvest and avoid further weather disruptions and run the risk of quality downgrading.
Forecasts for the coming week are dry and mostly sunny, which should allow farmers to a significant harvest progress.
Early quality has been good. Protein levels in wheat have been coming in a little higher than expected. There have been reasonable volumes of Hard 2 and APW coming to the market. However, higher protein wheat has been scarce limited volumes of 13 per cent plus protein wheat has been reaching the market during the first week of harvesting.
Chickpea prices tumbled last week as the early harvest in southern Queensland resolved export shorts. Chickpea prices fell by $110 a tonne to $820 delivered into Brisbane.
APW prices fell by $4 to $230 Brisbane last week, which is in line with exporter prices into other east coast ports. Hard 2 values declined by $8 to $246 Brisbane while APH was $6 higher at $275.
The bubble in the old crop grain prices has burst in southern Queensland with the onset of harvesting. This hike in grain prices ahead of harvest has highlighted that old crop supplies were significantly tighter than traders had thought, amid an absence of any grain stocks transparency.
Southern grain markets were still screaming for wheat last week, with Sydney trading up to $265 delivered towards the middle of the week. This is $30 to $40 above the new crop prices.
The tighter than expected old crop grain supplies suggests traders may have underestimated how much grain is being consumed through eastern Australia.
USDA released its November world supply and demand reports last week. There were no significant changes but it did reiterate that global supplies are abundant. World wheat production was edged higher to 745 million tonnes, 10 million tonnes more than last year.
While US wheat futures were softer last week, Black Sea wheat prices continued to edge higher with talk that logistical constraints may be limiting exports. Russian wheat prices have now risen by around 10 per cent in the past two months.
The firmer tone to Black Sea wheat appears to be spurring buying interest for Australian wheat. Exporters appear to be making sales into traditional Asian markets in recent weeks.
