Bad weather cuts Australia's wheat output forecast

Australia's newly harvested wheat crop fell short of expectations because of late-season weather hiccups, which have also prompted a collapse in sorghum sowings.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (Abare) has cut its forecast for 2009-10 wheat production by 337,000 tonnes to 21.7 million tonnes. This figure falls short of the 23.5 million tonnes proposed by some analysts earlier in the season, when spring rains eased fears that El Nino had returned Australia to drought.

The USDA, however, kept its estimation at 22.5 million tonnes.

Abare said that its revision reflected volatile weather late in 2009, when heatwave conditions were immediately followed by heavy rainfall.

For other crops, barley production forecast was reduced 244,000 tonnes to 8.05 million tonnes; canola was increased by 140,000 tonnes to 1.91 million tonnes; and grain sorghum was reduced 338,000 tonnes to 1.26 million tonnes.

Grain quality and yields suffered in particular in Victoria and South Australia. Queensland recorded its worst winter grain harvest since the drought year of 2006-07.