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June 3, 2010
Grain planting in West Australia 75% complete
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Grain sowing in Western Australia will be more than 75% complete this week after rains replenished dry soils and farmers accelerated sowing.
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''We have only just had enough rain,'' Western Australian Farmers Federation President Mike Norton said today (June 3). ''We wouldn't want to go another month without some substantial fronts coming through,'' said Norton, who estimated planting in the state at 75-80% complete this week.
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Farmers in Australia, the fourth-biggest wheat shipper, are ending their sowing after widespread rainfall last month shored up production prospects for winter grains and oilseeds. The wet weather in New South Wales ''renewed hopes for a bumper crop,'' said Primary Industries Minister, Steve Whan.
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''There is a reasonably positive outlook,'' Grains Council of Australia Chairman Jamie Smith said. ''The season is looking reasonably good at this stage, although we have a long way to go.''
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Wheat for July delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade gained 0.5% to US$4.4475 a bushel at 12.33 p.m. Melbourne time. The contract touched a near-eight-month low of US$4.42 yesterday (June 2) as US farmers accelerated their harvesting.
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In Western Australia, the area sown to wheat was likely to be little changed or slightly lower than last year, while the rapeseed area increased, Norton said. More than 50,000 hectares had been planted to genetically-modified rapeseed after a ban was lifted this year, he said. A couple of dry pockets remained even after last month's rain, he said.
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Western Australia last year produced 8.2 million tonnes of wheat, accounting for 38% of national output of 21.7 million tonnes, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics. The agency will release state-by-state forecasts for the current winter crops on June 16 this year.
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Western Australia is the country's largest wheat exporting state.
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Commonwealth Bank of Australia this week reiterated a forecast for a 5% year-on-year drop in the national wheat area, resulting in a crop of 20-21 million tonnes.
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''The possible range of production outcomes is extremely wide and conditions in spring will be critical,'' Luke Mathews, an agricultural commodities analyst at the bank reported. ''A kind spring growing season could easily result in a 23 million tonne-plus crop.''
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Some parts of New South Wales and Queensland may have enough soil moisture to take crops through to harvest, while other regions would need regular winter and spring rains, the grain council's Smith said. Risks included a repeat of last year's southern spring heat wave and the re-emergence of locusts when temperatures gained, he said. Spring in Australia is from September to November.
