Last week ABARES published their September Australian Crop Report which unsurprisingly saw production increases to the Australian winter crop following what can only be described as a dream run for most in the New South Wales cropping belt.

As the weather season starts to come to a close for the Northern Hemisphere production and the news of the Canadian canola seed production issues well digested by the market, what is next for the canola seed market and what does that mean for New South Wales new crop pricing? 

Mother nature tends to be a complicated and unpredictable force where quite often someone's misfortune turns into another's good fortune.

The month of June has been generous with its rainfall adding valuable moisture to the coffers of the New South Wales broadacre farmer. For some, the rain has been welcomed as a fair dinkum season opener, whilst for others it has consolidated what has already been a very good start to the 2020/21 growing season. 

As winter crop planting progresses around Australia, with many areas nearing the end, greater attention is now being paid to new crop marketing options for the coming 2021/22 season. 

The last month has seen an extraordinary run across all major global agricultural commodities with severe weather concerns and strong demand dominating the headlines.

As we approach the Anzac Day holiday many farmers across the state are taking advantage of fantastic sowing conditions for early sown crops such as grazing wheat and barley, and of course the traditional early sown crop, canola.

The past two months has seen some great rainfall totals over a large part of the West Australian wheat belt with a few lucky areas now over 150mm of summer rainfall.

With the export market largely dominated by milling grade requirements, there is fear that feed grain markets will come under significant pricing pressure in the next 4-6 weeks.

The 20/21 season will be one remembered by growers and industry players for many years to come. It will be one of those benchmark years that is reflected upon around kitchen tables and boardrooms as the new yardstick for what is deemed a “bin buster.”

The new year has brought with it a renewed sense of engagement from growers looking to step up the movement of the significant stocks still held in on-farm storages.

The 2020/21 harvest has been littered with delays due to rain events and fire ban days however just prior to Christmas, bulk handlers were reporting the largest ever receivals through their storages and with some NSW farmers in the southern regions still expected to harvest into the early parts of 2021, the numbers will only get bigger.

As harvest slowly starts to wind down, it was great to see the drama field year that was 2020 end on a positive note. 

For most farmers across the east coast, Christmas came early this year.  The build up to this year’s crop was highly anticipated and so far, it hasn’t disappointed.  Grain continues to fly into bulk handlers and on-farm storage at rapid rates with growers hoping to be finished harvest by Christmas.

On the 15^th of November, 15 countries signed the world’s largest free trade agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

As harvest progresses there are many parts of the WA wheatbelt experiencing higher than anticipated yields with some clients indicating results are exceeding expectation given extremely low growing season rainfall totals.

All in all, the stage looks set for a bumper harvest in the eastern states with all attention now turning to the weather forecasters for clarity on the harvest outlook.

In this game, despite all the planning in the world there are two variables that as individuals we have very little influence over, the weather and grain markets. With the commencement of the 20/21 harvest comes the usual speculation about what the next few months has in store for us.