May 13, 2009
Western Australia will not achieve bumper grain crop this year
An unseasonal dry autumn so far has ruled out a bumper grains crop in top exporting state Western Australia, according to grains handlers CBH Group on Tuesday (May 12).
The long-range forecast is pessimistic and the weather in Western Australia is still very warm, said CBH general manager of operations Colin Tutt.
Based on that, Tutt concluded that Western Australia will not achieve a record season.
Western Australia accounts for about one-third of the country's crops. Last year, the state harvested 12.3 million tonnes of grain crops.
Late rains could provide farmers will enough sub-soil moisture to meet the forecast for Western Australia of seven tonnes of wheat this year, said Australian Crop Forecasters analyst Gavin Warburton.
Warburton said it is still early in the season to allow for more rain.
Growers are bracing for driest April-May period on record but it is too early in the season to accurate estimate crop size, Tutt said.
Seeding winter crops can begin as early as April and end as late as June, though farmers prefer to plant early to obtain better yields.
The later they start the less production they get, and rain is needed, Tutt said.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting dry weather across Western Australian over the next five days.
