WINNIPEG (Staff) – While the departure of El Nino isn’t great news for prairie farmers, Australian producers should be looking forward to better growing conditions.
“I speculate and I have a feeling that Australia is going to improve . . . and I think our yields are going to slip a bit this year. It’s kind of a hunch, but we’ll just test out a few ideas here this summer,” said Ray Garnett, an analyst with the Canadian Wheat Board.
Garnett said that the Canadian Prairies are “climactically twinned” with the Queensland area: When we have a good growing year, they tend to have a bad one, and vice-versa.
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Last year, Australia suffered from severe drought. Seeding didn’t get under way until June.
Good moisture conditions
This year, planting started in May. Soil moisture conditions were very good, especially in the south and southeastern regions of the country. Eastern parts of Queensland were a little dry, said board analyst Don Bonner.
Production will depend greatly on precipitation in early fall.
“Basically, if it rains in August to September, they’ll have a good crop,” said analyst Paul Bullock. “If it doesn’t, nobody knows what it’s going to be like.”
