November 13, 2006

Australian wheat crop yield well below average

Yields from the new Australian wheat crop are predicted to be well below average following a severe drought in many growing areas, according to a national climate and agricultural update issued Monday by the government's Bureau of Rural Sciences.

Average yields are predicted only for the southern wheat belt of Western Australia and small parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales, it said.

Everywhere else, yields from the crop now being harvested would be at least below average and in many areas in the lowest 10 percent of historic yields, it said.

The low yields underpin expectations of sharply lower production, with wheat output expected to fall more than three fifths to 9.5 million tonnes, barley output down almost two thirds to 3.6 million tonnes and canola production to be down more than two thirds to 440,000 tonnes.

Lower production is also expected to sharply curb export availability after recent average annual domestic consumption is met for wheat of 5.5 million tonnes, 2.5 million tonnes for barley and 432,000 tonnes for canola.

The update also warned of ongoing tight supplies of irrigation water in eastern Australia, with no recharge occurring in October for the Murray-Darling Basin, where most irrigated crops are grown.

Current storage levels are at 28 percent of capacity, and are down 30 percent of total capacity from a year earlier, it said.