Local wheat and barley prices tumble

Stockfeed wheat bids plunged $15 to $320 a tonne delivered into the Darling Downs while feed barley was down $10 to $285.

Local silo bids were also sharply lower for most grades. Benchmark APW tumbled by $18/t to $331/t on Brisbane equivalent terms. ASW and Hard2 were also down by a similar amount while APH grades were only modestly lower.

Similar declines were seen for new crop prices across NSW and Victoria. Old crop prices in southern NSW and Victoria, where grain harvest won't start for a few weeks, remain firm.

Rains and unsettled weather slowed grain harvesting in Queensland late last week, but it picked up again over the weekend.

Southern Queensland grain deliveries are progressing well. GrainCorp received a further 311,000 tonnes of grain into its Queensland storages in the past week, taking total harvest deliveries above 1 million tonnes.

GrainCorp is already railing wheat to port from southern Queensland sites to free up storage capacity has harvest progresses.

Yields have been impressive, and quality has been high. A lot of the wheat has been making Hard 2 with a scattering of APH and lower protein grades.

Early chickpea harvesting is expected to start in the next couple of weeks.

NSW grain harvest picked up last week with the onset of warmer weather. GrainCorp reported 342,000t of grain deliveries with the total harvest receivals approaching half a million tonnes. Barley harvest is just starting in southern NSW.

Australia's tumbling wheat and barley bids comes as a stark contrast to global grain markets, which remain firm.

A North American drought coupled with a smaller than expected Russian wheat crop has left a big hole in global wheat supplies which has pushed global prices up to the highest level in more than a decade. Tight world wheat supplies have been worsened by Russia's tax on wheat exports, which has put an additional brake on Black Sea wheat exports.

United States winter wheat futures ended last week 1.5 per cent to 2pc higher on the hope that tight global supplies will boost export demand. French wheat futures rallied to a 13-year high last week on the tight global supplies.

Australian traders are reporting strong export demand for wheat and barley amid the smaller global supplies and Black Sea export restrictions.