“There is very little crop that has been planted into moisture and has got up.
There have been chickpeas sown as deep as nine inches (23cm) and wheat that has gone in almost that deep.
It looks okay, but will obviously need rain,” he said.
“With the good prices for sorghum and cotton, if nothing happens in the next few weeks I think people will forget about winter crop and look at a summer crop or long fallow.” Mr Dawson said the rain predicted for next week could be useful if it was substantial, but would do more harm than good if the falls were only light.
We’d prefer the rain to come later in September/October when the summer cropping opportunities open up.” On the Darling Downs in southern Queensland, crop consultant, Matthew Holding, said the lowest percentage of winter crop had been planted that he had ever seen.
At this point in time, as a consultant I don’t have a single chickpea crop to look at and only a little bit of irrigated wheat and barley,” he said.
“They will still plant chickpeas, wheat and barley until the middle of July on the Downs.
“In the background, it will be a shame if we can’t get winter crop in but it is not overly dire for growers because sorghum and cotton prices are so good that, if they miss the winter sowing opportunity, they will just move on to the next one.” Central Queensland In Central Queensland (CQ), Spackman Iker Ag Consulting director and Crop Consultants Australia president, Jamie Iker, said the winter crop was “fairly dismal”.
“Some wheat and barley both went in early on some moisture, but it was marginal moisture.
“If there is rain after that it builds moisture profiles for a potential spring crop, but more likely a summer crop.