Rainfall too late for summer crops

Cotton production could fall by 72 per cent with many others to be a fraction of a normal year.

Cotton production is forecast to fall by 72 per cent. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Rain has come too late for many drought-hit farmers and cotton and some other crops are likely to be a fraction of a normal year.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences said production prospects for summer crops in Queensland and northern New South Wales remain well below average.

ABARES predicts a 66 per cent decrease down to 878,000 tonnes.

ABARES’ acting executive director Peter Gooday said summer crop prospects were adversely affected by unfavourable seasonal conditions in December that further depleted soil moisture levels to well below average in most summer cropping regions and to record lows in some others.

“With the planting of summer crops in Queensland and northern New South Wales now largely complete, we expect planted area and production to be lower than our forecasts of December 2019,” Mr Gooday said.

Seasonal conditions in December were more unfavourable than expected.

“Rainfall in late January and in February was largely too late to plant more grain sorghum in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales,” Mr Gooday said.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest three-month rainfall outlook indicates that for most summer cropping regions in those regions rainfall is more likely to be below average from March to May.

Cotton production is forecast to fall by 72 per cent to around 135,000 tonnes of lint and 191,000 tonnes of seed.

Grain sorghum production is expected to be down by 77 per cent to around 292,000 tonnes.

Rice production will remain low at around 54,000 tonnes due to low water allocations and high water prices, ABARES said.

ABARES’ winter crop production estimate for 2019-20 remains largely unchanged from its December forecast at around 29 million tonnes.

Higher than expected barley and canola production is estimated to have largely offset lower than expected wheat production, ABARES said.