Some Australia crop lands face dry weather concerns

Concerns are mounting in Australia about dry conditions for some winter crop lands during what is now the key planting window, analysts said Monday (May 11).

The first 10 days of May has been dry for nearly all the nation's wheat lands with areas in Western Australia - which typically account for about 40 percent of the national output - suffering the most, according to Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"Urgent rain is required in WA (and some east coast regions). However, the weekly forecast is mainly dry," he said.

In South Australia, widespread rainfall at the end of April provided a good start to the season, according to a monthly crop report from the state's Primary Industries & Resources Department.

Seeding is expected to progress rapidly during the first few weeks of May. However, many areas particularly those that received lighter falls are drying quickly and will need follow-up rainfall soon to enable seeding to be completed, according to the report.

Total crop area isn't expected to change significantly in South Australia, while, the area of wheat, durum, canola and chickpeas may be up slightly with a reduction in the area of feed barley, it said.

Many growers like to plant in May, but depending on rainfall can sow wheat until the end of June.

Early March, the government's chief commodities forecaster, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, forecast national wheat output at 22.1 million tonnes this crop year, up a little from the actual output last crop year ended March 31.