A sprayed out crop of sorghum ahead of harvest at Pacific Seeds’ variety demonstration at Brookstead this week. Photo: Jaco van der Merwe

THE SORGHUM harvest in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland has cranked up this week, and pushed some wheat and barley into the market from grower stores.

In the south, sales of wheat of wheat are ticking along, with consumers, exporters, and traders in the market.

Barley remains the hold for the southern grower as extremely dry conditions in much of South Australia and western Victoria boost up-country demand for grain following a low-yielding season for commercial and mixed-farm hay production.

Table 1: Indicative prices in Australian dollars per tonne.

Sorghum shipping starts next month

One trader said the big sorghum crop, coming in on top of a big wheat crop, is expected to have Downs growers selling sorghum “thick and fast” in the next week or two.

While sorghum cargoes for prompt shipment are yet to appear on Brisbane stems, trade sources say the first vessel is booked to load early March, once the chickpea program stops.

On the consumer side, traders say lotfeeders are comfortable with their wheat and barley coverage, and traders are starting to build their positions as buying shifts to the coming quarters.

On sorghum, growing selling is expected to surge from next week as above-average sorghum yields exert pressure on on-farm storages.

Indications from early crops point to an average of 6-7t/ha from Inner and Central Downs crops, and up to 9t/ha in places, with the range dropping to more like 5-6t/ha on the Western Downs.

In the Moree district of northern NSW, AMPS agronomist Tony Lockrey said harvest is around 90 percent complete.

“We’re seeing the best ever average yields of 5-6.5t/ha,” Mr Lockrey said, adding that quality has also been good.

However, overall area planted to sorghum in northern NSW, and in south-west Qld, has been limited because of last year’s big chickpea and wheat planting.

Trade sources say growers in northern NSW are generally holding their wheat, either warehoused or stored on farm, and everything from ASW to Prime Hard is still sitting in reasonable volume in the district.

Growers are being offered around $295/t on farm for their sorghum, and roughly $312/t for their Prime Hard, not nearly enough of a premium to prompt a sale.

Mr Lockrey said many growers in the Moree region are being pleasantly surprised with sorghum yields after having the same experience with wheat.

“Wheat yields were higher than the 4t/ha we expected at planting; what was harvested was more like 5.5-6t.”

In northern NSW, growers generally have topsoil moisture and deep subsoil moisture, but will need a soaking rain in autumn to set them up for the winter plant.

South holds barley

Grower selling of wheat is ticking along in southern NSW and in Victoria, with the domestic and export markets out of Adelaide pulling some volume west.

“Things are a touch firmer, and there’s seemingly more depth in the market,” GeoCommodities broker Brad Knight said.

Most of the buying interest is for deferred positions.

Mr Knight said the premium for ASW over SFW wheat was around $5/t, and “barely recognisable at the farm gate”, although the premium was higher for ASW going into the Melbourne container market.

He said the flat market was providing no incentive for the grower to sell.

“They’ll chip away at it, but when the market isn’t moving, there’s no call to action; the price has been very stable for a long time on cereals.”

Wilken Grain trader Andrew Kelso said relatively speaking for this time of year, grower selling was modest.

“Growers are not rushing to sell,” Mr Kelso said.

“There’s not much hay around, and they want barley for livestock.”

After SA’s poor harvest, the result of a very dry growing season, its consumers, and possibly exporters, are taking the unusual step of sourcing grain from the east.

“There is grain moving from NSW and Vic into SA.”

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