Darling Downs farmers are now waiting for more rain to finalise the 2018 sorghum plantings.
Soils have dried out quickly after the good October rains with last week’s scorching temperatures the final straw. Most farmers stopped planting last week as the temperatures soared into the high 30s and will now wait for more rain to proceed.
How much sorghum southern Queensland farmers have been able to plant so far varies significantly. Some farmers are saying they have already planted three-quarters of their intended sorghum crop and will wait until late November or December to finish. But parts of the central Downs, where the October rainfall was below 70mm, have planted less than half of the area they wanted to plant.
The early sorghum crops are off to a good start but will be soon looking for rain.
Sorghum prices continued to strengthen last week. New crop sorghum values pushed above $370 a tonne last week, up from the recent lows of $350, as the focus swings back to rain and farmer selling disappears.
Wheat prices were steady last week at $440-450 delivered into the Darling Downs. Traders are reporting interstate wheat is being offered at $410 to $415 Free on Truck Brisbane which is equating to the $440 plus delivered into the Darling Downs. Barley prices fell $10 to $425 delivered into the Darling Downs as prices eased in WA.
Feed barley prices in WA have tumbled by $35 to $315 Kwinana through late October and early November as farmer selling ramped up with the bumper yields. Exporters reported limited interest from overseas buyers for feed barley at current prices but demand for malting barley was emerging.
The weaker tone in the WA barley values filtered through to other states.
Traders are speculating that WA’s 2018 grain harvest could top the record harvest of 16.7 million tonnes set in 2016/17.
Bumper crops in the west is a stark contrast from the disappointing east coast harvest. Queensland’s barley harvest is already winding down and wheat will be finished by the end of November. GrainCorp reported Queensland grain deliveries of around 50,000 tonnes in early November. This is less than 10pc of the grain deliveries at the same time in 2017.
Grain harvest is also under way in NSW and Victoria, where the pattern of poor yields and small grain deliveries seen in Queensland is being replicated. GrainCorp said the small grain deliveries is reflective of the poor season and farmers holding a larger share of production on farm or delivery directly to domestic consumers.
Slowing grain exports have seen Australia’s 2017/18 wheat exports fall to decade lows. Australia exported 865,000t of wheat in September which saw the final 2017/18 marketing year (October to September) exports fall to 13.8mt down from 22.6mt in the previous season.
Drought has significantly eroded Australia’s role as a major wheat exporting country and this pattern will continue into the 2018/19 marketing year. East coast grain exports are expected to fall to negligible levels in the next 12 months. As much as 3mt of wheat and barley is expected to be transhipped from WA and SA into the east coast in order to cover the domestic market needs.
