Mice threat to hay, but rain boosts canola

Hay consumption has risen but stocks are being damaged by mice, while canola is a standout for grain growers.

The mice problem is worse in NSW than Victoria.

Hay and silage demand is running high due to normal seasonal patterns. Pasture availability is low as growth has slowed in the colder weather and the roots and soils of annual pasture paddocks are yet to sustain the pressures of grazing.

The change sweeping through southeast Australia this week should cover grazing properties south of the Divide with 25-50mm, which may further delay opening up paddocks to stock. Accordingly, the feed out rate of hay and silage has increased.

But hay is being consumed by another new source.

Many hay growers in Victoria have noticed a certain level of mice activity yet reports of substantial mice damage to hay stored on Victorian farms are not common. Baiting programs are more readily maintained for bales stored in sheds rather than paddock stacks.

Further north, populations of mice in western NSW have reached plague proportions. However, the impact on the hay sector does vary and accurate estimates of the total losses are difficult. There are substantial stacks of cereal hay near Coonamble, Forbes and Gilgandra.

Haystacks covered with sheds or caps have been affected, leaving chaffy piles of foul-smelling unsaleable hay.

Other growers west of Dubbo conceded they do have mice, but believe they are manageable. Some bales on the outside of their stacks have been lightly infested and they still have access to clean hay in bales stacked further inside their sheds.

These growers estimate they will lose 200 to 300 bales from each of their 3,000 bale sheds, but that will not be realised until winter.

Stacks of straw appear to be less impacted, as they do not have the same food supplies from the immature grain heads of cereal hay.

Growers have also noticed that the infestation rate of hay bales is lower in earlier cut cereal hay rather than the later cut crops that were harvested at the milk dough stage.

Large square bales produced by a high-density baler also appear to be less attractive to the burrowing mice.

Mice activity is expected to slow with the colder weather, however fears remain that mice will over-winter inside bales and continue to add to the existing damage.

Hay demand for long-term growers in the central west has been consistent. Until six weeks ago a surprising volume of hay was moving to central Queensland but the 100 to 200mm that fell during March halted demand.

The demand for central western hay has now changed to coastal dairy, local chaff mills and a small volume to local graziers.

In the northern Wimmera and Mallee, where the subsoil moistures are already some of the lowest in the country, the forecast early this week was for falls of 1mm to 5mm.

The north-central region of Victoria, where 37 per cent of the state’s cereal and vetch hay is produced, is forecast to receive as much as 15 to 25mm.

CANOLA GROWERS BENEFIT AS PRICES RISE, WATER COSTS FALL

Following  the record grain production down the east coast of the country, many canola and vetch crops are in and up and growers remain buoyed by prices for this year’s harvest.

The rain that is moving over eastern and southern Victoria will support the establishment of these crops and please canola growers, as will the recent prices.

Northern Victorian irrigators have been able to secure the early establishment of their crops by watering up their canola.

With allocation water trading as low as $50 a megalitre, croppers are able to secure cheap water to carry over and irrigate winter crops during spring as well as summer crops.

New crop canola prices have hit $730 a tonne delivered Victorian port less freight to local silo. These are exceptional prices, exceeded only by a period in July 2008 when canola prices hit a peak of $785 a tonne caused by shortages of production during the drought and record prices for canola in Canada at the time.

Canola prices for prompt delivery to Geelong have hit $708 a tonne, up $58 in the past month.

Canola futures on the Winnipeg exchange have spiked an amazing $175 a tonne in the past month.

Canola has been bid up due to shortages of stocks in Canada, the high prices for soyabean and the dry weather restricting the planting of new crop canola in the Prairies.

Canola and vetch growers have been buoyed by rising prices. Picture: Andy Rogers

This run-up in prices is also found in the broader oilseed markets.

In the past month, rapeseed futures on the Paris-based exchange have shot up $160 a tonne and soyabean futures in Chicago have risen $80 a tonne.

Cold weather in the US is delaying the planting of corn and dry weather is affecting the production of Brazil’s second corn crop.

But the harvest of Brazil’s soyabean crop is all but complete and traders are reporting higher areas planted to soybeans, which may weigh on prices in the future.

Corn is driving wheat prices higher globally. Corn’s benchmark price, the futures on the Chicago exchange, were up again last week, lifting $43 a tonne in a week and $91 a tonne or 16 per cent for the month.

Local markets are more subdued.

Australian Standard White wheat delivered to users in Melbourne is up $2 a tonne to $332 while the market quotes for direct deliveries of ASW wheat to Geelong sit at $336.

Shortages of the available road and rail freight are creating this short-term squeeze of supply.

MORE

HAY SELLING ACTIVITY GATHERS PACE

HEARTBREAK FOR NSW GRAIN GROWERS AS MICE DEVASTATE CROPS

AUSTRALIAN WHEAT PRICES CONTINUE THEIR LIFT