Reid Seaby, WA Regional Manager
1 minute read
The long awaited break to the season has finally arrived. Really good rains were received by much of the state last week as a couple of weather systems passed over the agricultural regions between Thursday and Monday. Some areas had as much as 100mm over this period but unfortunately, the Esperance zone did miss out, receiving approximately 5-10mm. Esperance did however get off to a better start than a lot of areas with 10-15mm recorded in May when the rest of the state remained dry.
While this rain is a little later than most would have liked, it’s obviously a welcome change and has seen a few more hectares go in (although as a percentage of total area, it will be small). Given the later break we still believe the area sown to wheat will be lower, canola hectares will also be down, while barley and oats acres are likely to increase as a result.
Markets have taken a bit of a breather over the past couple of weeks and as a result, grower selling seems to have slowed. It seems the rain has taken the heat out of the market for now, but it will certainly give farmers greater confidence moving forward due to improved production certainty. APW in Kwinana was a bit higher this week, up $3/MT to $312/MT FIS. Barley bids were a little softer as feed dropped back to $260/MT a tonne and malt fell $5/MT to $285/MT FIS in the Kwinana zone. Red crop bids are now entering the frame with 2020/21 APW multi grades priced around $315/MT in Kwinana.
Prices as at 13th June 2019
* View of current market pricing. Does not represent current Agfarm bids.
