Tomahawk wheat sown May 1 and in head in the Victorian Mallee. Photo: Bec Marshall, Normanville

GROWER selling has picked up ahead of the start of harvest in areas south of Central Queensland, where headers are already rolling in this first week of spring.

Across eastern Australia, growers are getting a handle on the enormity of the crop coming in the south, as evidenced by ABARES numbers this week in its quarterly Australian Crop Report.

In the north, maximum daytime temperatures are forecast to move above 30 degrees Celsius in coming days, which increases the threat of insect infestations.

This has encouraged some northern growers to sell wheat to domestic consumers, and to container packers.

In the south, some growers have clocked the weakening barley market, and are sending loads north to domestic consumers ahead of supply-side pressure expected once harvest gets going in New South Wales.

Table 1: Indicative prices in Australian dollars per tonne.

North heats up

Consumers in the northern region have booked loads from the NSW Riverina in the past week at around $400/t delivered Downs.

“Barley has been coming up from as far away as Vic, but it’s priced itself out of the market,” one trader said.

“I think freight has something to do with that.”

Expensive diesel has added at least $10/t to the freight component in the past 10 days, and consumers are now said to be pulling most of their barley from central and south-central NSW.

“On wheat, some growers are starting to let it go.

“I think their biggest concern is the hygiene factor; we’re going from days where it’s 24-25 degrees to 35, and that’s spooking them.”

Independent feedlots are taking loads of wheat with “the odd weevil” at a $10-$15/t discount, but corporate operations are tougher on their input requirements.

As harvest cranks up in CQ, some growers on the western Downs are baling barley and wheat for hay for sale to local feedlots at around $450/t.

New-crop wheat is starting to trade at around $430/t January, and barley is being sold forward at $406/t.

Some growers in the far north of NSW have started planting sorghum after patchy recent rain, but are expected to pull up shortly with only a shower or two appearing amid high daytime temperatures on the eight-day forecast.

Barley weighs on south

The southern barley market is feeling the weight of a big crop and soft global pricing which has failed to get barley on to early new-crop shipping stems.

Despite the unattractive pricing, some growers are selling out current crop to empty silos and silo bags ahead of the bumper harvest expected in Vic.

Prompt shipment of wheat out of Vic is propping up its market, but southern barley is finding it difficult to generate much export or domestic demand, with local consumers hopeful prices will sink further around harvest.

“Barley’s a tough one at the moment, but wheat’s been creeping up,” Mygrain Horsham-based broker Andy Brown said.

Canola at $800/t delivered site or better is attracting much of the Vic grower’s forward-selling interest.

ABARES September 1 figures for Australia’s 2026-27 wheat and barley crops lifted from the initial predictions released June 2, with Vic estimates adding 681,000t to wheat and 564,000t to barley.

The NSW figures also rose, with wheat up 700,000t and barley 600,000t to reflect improved conditions in the southern half of the state.

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