Megan offers patchy rain for cropping areas

Any rainfall is welcome at this time of the year, but the patchy storms resulted in hit and miss rainfall. This included 5-20 millimetres across the Central Highlands and 10-25mm across the Downs and western Downs. The heaviest of the southern Queensland falls were in the western Downs with 20-25mm around Roma, Surat, and St George.

More showers were expected early this week with a chance of 10-20mm across both central Queensland and southern Queensland cropping areas this week.

Farmers are anxious to see rain to bolster late planted summer crop yields and build soil moisture reserves ahead of winter crop plantings.

Sorghum harvest is advancing, and yields remain strong in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. Many now expect the national sorghum crop could top 2.2 million tonnes based on the strong yield results so far. A crop of this size would mean another large export year.

This follows last year's massive export program which saw more than 2.5 million tonnes shipped in the 2023 calendar year.

Sorghum bids are holding around $345 delivered into the Darling Downs packers. Sorghum bids have drifted lower over the past couple of weeks as the harvest pace picks up and the early season premiums disappear. Exporters are reporting healthy export demand from China for containers, although bulk export demand has been quiet, so far.

Barley prices jumped $10 last week to $370 delivered into Downs markets as buyers chase scarce northern supplies. Barley markets were all bids in the southeastern Australian markets as well, as exporters and domestic buyers remerged while farmer selling remains slow.

Northern wheat markets edged higher, but without the enthusiasm seen in barley.

On the eve of Easter, Australian farmers are becoming more anxious for rain. Global markets are also becoming more sensitive to the northern hemisphere spring weather on several fronts.

Variable weather is already starting to create some worries, with European farmers suffering too much rain while much of Russia is too dry. It's early days to be overly worried about dry weather in Russia, where winter wheat crops are just exiting dormancy, but markets will become increasingly sensitive if the dry pattern extends into May.