Tough seasonal conditions hit summer crops again

Summer crop planting forecasts have plummeted by a third since ABARES’ December estimates.

SUMMER crop production has taken another hit, with plantings dropping 33 per cent from December estimates.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences’ February report, released today, predicted total summer crop plantings of 357,000ha.

This is compared to December estimates of 535,000ha, while total summer crop production is forecast to fall by 66 per cent to about 878,000 tonnes.

“With the planting of summer crops in Queensland and northern NSW now largely complete, we expect planted area and production to be lower than our forecasts of December,” ABARES acting executive director Peter Gooday said.

Mr Gooday said it was an “extremely trying time” for crop growers, as tough seasonal conditions during December further dropped soil moisture levels in most cropping regions, with some areas experiencing record lows.

“The drop largely reflects seasonal conditions in December that were more unfavourable than expected,” Mr Gooday said.

ABARES indicated area planted to grain sorghum was estimated to decrease 71 per cent in 2019–20 to 143,000ha.

Production is forecast to fall 77 per cent to about 292,000 tonnes.

For cotton, the crop felt the impacts of both low supplies of irrigated water and scarce soil moisture for dryland cropping.

“Cotton had two major impacts, the first was that growers’ irrigation water was low which meant irrigated planting dropped and dryland crops had no soil moisture so they produced nothing,” Mr Gooday said.

Area planted to cotton is forecast to plummet 82 per cent in 2019–20 to 61,000ha, while production is estimated to decline 72 per cent to about 135,000 tonnes of lint and 191,000 tonnes of seed.

“I can’t find a time summer crop production was this low since 1980-81.”

And any rain that fell over the country recently was too late to make any improvements.

“For growers in southern Queensland and northern Queensland the rain was too late to improve plantings,” he said.

Mr Gooday said the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest three-month rainfall outlook indicates that for most summer cropping regions in Queensland and northern NSW rainfall is more likely to be below average than above average from March to May.

But the recent rain was “just what the doctor ordered” for next season’s plantings.