Sorghum sprouting causing headaches for growers, traders

Many crops that were ripe during the February and March rain events are now being pushed out of the most valuable Sorghum 1 category due to sprouting.

Dave Walton at Yaraandoo near Dalby is one of many growers facing a quality downgrade.

He planted 400ha across four dryland paddocks and 56ha across two irrigated paddocks in late-October and early November.

While he managed to harvest most of his dryland crop before the rain, his irrigated crop was not so lucky.

"We had 150mm in late February, so the paddock started to sprout a little bit before we sprayed it out, and then we had 55mm with a storm two weeks ago," Mr Walton said.

"I was hoping this paddock would be Sorghum 1, but I don't think it's going to be the case. I think it'll all be Sorghum 2 now with the sprouting."

Mr Walton said the $20 to $40 per tonne difference wasn't huge, but it was still frustrating.

"You're not going back to the bank saying you stuffed up your budget, but it's still a premium."

Adding insult to injury, the recent storm brought with it hail and 100km/h winds, which ripped through his farm and pushed some of the sorghum on a 40 degree angle.

"It's a bit of a shame. It was all looking pretty good. We got through to the end of the season, we filled our dam back up, and were ready to go for winter," he said.

"It's going to knock a little bit of cream off, but you could have had the whole crop flattened and sitting underwater. There are a lot of other people in worse positions."

Remarkably, after a week of sunshine and no rain, his sorghum crop is beginning to stand back up.

"The heads look a lot higher now than what they did. It's almost like they've laid on each other and then they've sort of stood back up enough that I can get a header front under that now," he said.

"I never really thought sorghum would do that. Usually it lays over, being such a top-heavy crop."

When Mr Walton harvested his dryland sorghum, it averaged 3.7t/ha on long fallow ground and 5.5t/ha on sorghum-on-sorghum country.

With harvest on the irrigated crop due to start this week, he's hoping yield losses won't be accompanying his quality losses.

Not all is lost for growers experiencing sprouting issues, however, with trade sources not anticipating a huge discount on heavily sprouted grain.

"There's been some numbers quoted of a $40-$45 discount with sprouting - above 10 per cent but up to 50pc sprouted," a Darling Downs grain trader said.

"We've been talking with guys about it. There'll still be a market for it. They call it 'Sorghum 3', but nobody quantifies it, because it's just outside the sorghum one and two specifications."

A GrainCorp spokesperson said they were working with the industry to determine the extent of the issue and what capacity it'll need for downgraded grain.

"From there, we'll have to look at where we have suitable space to hold the grain of that quality, given we're coming off the back of a large winter crop and are likely to have another busy season coming our way," the spokesperson said.

"Once we've got plans in place, we'll be letting growers know directly, so it's important they stay in touch with their local site managers on this issue."

AgForce grains president Brendan Taylor has also been keeping tabs on the issue.

"We made contact with the traders and said, 'I hope you've got your head around this because there's going to be heaps of the stuff," Mr Taylor said.

Mr Taylor said it appeared the market was starting to come to terms with the situation, discussing new standards which generally weren't offered in regular seasons.

"How it's being graded or binned I'm not sure, but [in] my discussions with grain traders recently, they were talking potentially Sorghum 1, 2, 3 or 4, and then potentially a Sorghum 'S' category for sprouted, which could be a 50pc plus sprouted category," he said.

"They've certainly been talked about as a bin grade, and each one you drop down, obviously, the penalty in dollars per tonne will increase."

The biggest issue with the sprouted grain at the moment is there hasn't been much harvested because it's still too wet, which means traders can't make an informed decision.

Once samples start coming off headers, traders can send those samples away to get them independently tested by lab.

"Then we can again show that to the market or show that to buyers and then it'll find its feet," Mr Taylor said.

"I haven't heard of any [situation] where they're offering ridiculously low prices for damaged grain, but the headers haven't really got marching again properly."

Some growers with bad sprouting have also experienced shelling out or shattering.

"When the grain sprouts in the head, it can actually get loose in the glume, and if you get a lot of strong wind or further rain, it can actually drop out. That's just an absolute loss then, because once they hit the ground, they're gone," Mr Taylor said.

"I've heard of losses in the realm of 10 or 15pc where it actually shelled out."

The rain is not all bad news for crops, with big yields still expected, according to Mr Taylor.

"There are crops that have benefited greatly from the rain too. Probably not as many in a grain sense, but the dryland cotton certainly benefitted from all rain."

Meanwhile, Central Queensland is still dealing with dry conditions.

"It certainly is a tale of two cities," Mr Taylor said.

"Central Queensland has been dealing with little rain and heat waves, and southern Queensland's been getting excessive rainfall and not much sunshine.

"There have been some storms in central Queensland in the last few days, but they're still very patchy.

"Three or four weeks of warm, sunny days would be well received in southern Queensland to catch up on all the fallow spraying and get the harvest done, and some more rain in central Queensland would also be welcome."

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