Good March rain has allowed many central Queensland grain farmers to start planting winter crops, while southern Queensland farmers are waiting for further falls before commencing.
Patchy March storms dumped 100mm to 200mm across most of the Central Highland which is ideal to cereals. Wheat plantings will be well up on recent years amid the uncertain price outlook for chickpeas on the lack of demand from India.
Strong feed demand from southern Queensland has also boosted the profitability for cereal crops.
Some central Queensland farmers are happy to plant more paddocks to wheat and barley after several consecutive seasons of chickpeas, which has raised some disease concerns.
Darling Downs and Maranoa grain farmers are waiting for more rain to plant winter crops.
Hot, dry summer weather has left the subsoil dry and farmers are looking for a good soaking in the next six weeks to ensure the intended area is seeded.
Southern Queensland farmers are saying chickpea plantings will be well down this year at the expense of more wheat and barley.
Current new crop wheat prices of $350 on farm are offering better returns than chickpeas at $600 to $650 a tonne. Old crop grain prices steadied last week.
Stockfeed wheat was unchanged at $400 delivered into Darling Downs locations while feed barley was $2 higher at $387.
Prices for new season wheat into southern Queensland have been edging higher in recent weeks as grain buyers become increasingly nervous about the ongoing dry weather.
Traders are reporting that stockfeed wheat for a January 2020 delivery into the Darling Downs has climbed to $360 up from $350 at the start of April.
New season ASX wheat futures also jumped last week amid the absence of a seasonal break in the dry weather pattern across the east coast. The ASX east coast wheat futures for a January delivery gained $7 to $338. ASX east coast wheat futures are generally viewed to be reflective of the Melbourne prices.
US wheat futures tumble 4 per cent last week as expectations of the upcoming harvests in the Black Sea and Europe continue to grow.
CBOT wheat futures tumbled after a respected Russian crop forecaster said the upcoming 2019 harvest will be the second largest ever and more than 10 million tonnes bigger than last year.
European wheat production is also expected to be sharply higher than last year.
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