June 7, 2007

 

Some Australian wheat lands enjoy good start for winter crops
 

 

Australian winter crops face mixed conditions across the country, with optimism in South Australia and Queensland states, while Western Australian farmers say they face ruin unless rains fall within weeks.

 

In South Australia, farmers have planted the largest area on record to winter crops of mostly wheat, said Peter Fulwood, a crop consultant to the state's Department to Primary Industries Thursday.

 

The total area planted to the new crop is estimated at 3.95 million hectares, with total production put at 6.68 million tonnes of mostly wheat, he said.

 

"We've had an excellent start, the crop has been sown pretty well at the optimum time," Fulwood said in a report on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

 

Most years, crops are rarely planted by the end of May, but this year, there were excellent conditions for crop emergence, he said.

 

South Australia produced 1.35 million tonnes of wheat last crop year ending Mar 31, of the national output of 9.8 million tonnes, which was down more than 60 percent compared with the previous year due to a severe drought.

 

The state's annual average wheat production in the five years ending 2004/05 was 3.4 million tonnes, much of which was exported.

 

Meanwhile, two days of steady soaking rains in south-east Queensland have heartened farmers, including the Darling Downs farming region east of Brisbane, which has a reputation as a good area for winter crops but has suffered badly in many droughts seen in recent years, including last crop year.

 

The Queensland Farmers' Federation Chief Executive John Cherry said the rains have renewed hope for farmers.

 

"This is the best rain we have seen for a couple of years for large parts of southern Queensland and certainly it is going to bring a lot of hope to farmers across southern Queensland," he said.

 

Many centres in Darling Downs reported falls of between 40 millimetres and 70 millimetres in the 48 hours to early Thursday.

 

Much of this rain also fell in neighbouring northern districts of New South Wales, which also suffered under last year's drought.

 

In Western Australia, farmers are becoming increasingly worried, according to the local farm lobby, particularly those north of the Great Eastern Highway, which runs east from Perth.

 

The Western Australian Farmers' Federation said without decent rains in the next week, many producers would not be able to plant a crop this winter.

 

Even though the optimum time for planting in Western Australia is mid-May, farmers have become familiar in recent years with late breaks to the season with sowings into early-July.

 

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics will issue fresh forecasts in a crop report scheduled for Jun 19.