qld crop in the balance

Hot weather scorches crops

August 25, 2009

THE unseasonal burst of hot, dry weather has sent the central Queensland winter grain crop into a nose dive and is knocking the stuffing out of southern Queensland crops, says AgForce Grains president Lyndon Pfeffer.

Mr Pfeffer said central Queensland is already in bad shape, but if it doesn’t rain in southern Queensland soon the industry expects a less than average grain harvest in coming months.

He said winter grain planting in central Queensland had only been patchy because of poor rainfall earlier this year.

“After being crook for a month, this hot weather has resulted in most crops turning blue with water stress and now either being fed to cattle or sprayed-out to conserve soil moisture for next season,” Mr Pfeffer said.

“The last decent rain in central Queensland was at Easter time, and with above average temperatures in May, June and the first half of July – followed by excessive heat and wind during the past few days – most CQ crops are failing.

“Some producers took the optimistic decision to plant on minimal soil moisture and hope for follow-up rain, but that just didn’t arrive and the hot weather is the final straw.”

In southern Queensland, particularly around the Darling Downs, there was a more promising start to the season with good rain in May in many areas providing reasonable growing conditions until now.

“This excessive heat and wind is not normal and it has knocked the stuffing out of the crops. The Darling Downs area is holding on, but if it doesn’t rain soon there will be serious concerns in many parts of the southern Queensland grain belt,” Mr Pfeffer said.

In the well-worn cycle of decreased supply leading to increased prices, Mr Pfeffer said sorghum prices were on the up and those growers holding stores of sorghum on-farm after the bumper summer crop stood to benefit from this price increase.

“There was an above-average harvest of sorghum this summer, but most of the winter crops are wheat, chickpea and barley, and these will be in short supply later in the year.”

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2009/08/25/106451_grain-and-hay.html