May 28, 2009

Dry summer and autumn weather in Western Australia's Wheatbelt, along with large areas missing last week's widespread rainfall could leave grain production in Western Australia below average in a range 8 million to 11 million tonnes, operations manager at Cooperative Bulk Handling Ltd. Michael Musgrave said Wednesday (May 27).

Western Australia's vast Wheatbelt region - a major source of globally traded wheat - experienced an Indian summer ahead of last week's rains, which fell mostly in northern and eastern areas and which spurred sowing of crops.

But the rains largely missed about one third of the state's Wheatbelt, in the southeast, he said.

"Those areas still need significant rain" to get widespread seeding underway, with weather models showing the possibility of some light rainfall at best from two weather events forecast in the next two weeks, he said.

"We're thinking below-average production at this point in time, but obviously it's a long way to go yet" before the harvest in November and December, Musgrave said.

"We're very grateful for the northern rain, but we're 8 (million tonnes) to 11 (million tonnes) at this stage," given weather conditions thus far, he said.

Given that historically, 70 percent of the state's grain production is wheat, this implies production this year in a range 5.6 million to 7.7 million tonnes. Other crops include barley, oats, lupins and canola.

CBH, the state's monopoly provider of upcountry grain storage and coastal export terminals, received 12.3 million tonnes of grain from the 2008 crop, harvesting of which finished later than usual in January.

Production from the state's 2008 wheat crop reached 8.9 million tonnes.