IT HAS been a testing few weeks for Australia’s canola producers, in terms of both production and pricing.
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Australia’s farmers flocked to plant canola this season, drawn in by its premium over other crop options, but the sowing period has thrown up its share of frustrations.
Canola industry leaders have reported a variety of planting woes, ranging from a false break of around 5mm in central WA which germinated the crop which then did not have sufficient moisture to survive through to seed burst in southern NSW and Victoria.
Analysts are starting to weigh up whether to lower production estimates for canola tonnages out of WA, Australia’s largest canola producing state as we enter the end of the canola planting window.
Insect pressures are also a concern, with slugs, snails, lucerne flea and red legged earth mites all proving problematic through southern and eastern Australia.
The mouse plagues in parts of South Australia and Victoria have also had an impact on canola emergence, with reports of seed being eaten out of the ground, leading to a patchy germination.
Slug pressure is rising in traditional hot spots such as south western Victoria, but the gastropods are also being encountered, in many cases for the first time, in areas such as the Wimmera.
After baiting for mice, farmers are now faced with another expense in the form of an application of slug bait.
Meanwhile, the tempting price that lured farmers to plant extra canola is showing signs of easing.
Cargill Australia corporate affairs manager Peter McBride said a big South American soybean crop was weighing heavily on the entire oilseeds sector.
“International and domestic canola values have recently come under pressure due to a record soybean crop in Latin American and a positive outlook on the current US soybean crop,” he said.
In addition, he said after a boggy start, paddocks in key Canadian canola producing provinces were drying out.
“Canada’s canola crop is looking promising and the European Union is two weeks away from harvesting what looks like a solid rapeseed crop which will likely place further pressure on canola values.”
Australian new crop values have come back by $15 a tonne in the past fortnight to sit at $517/t delivered Geelong.
However, falls in the canola sector have been dwarfed by those in soybeans, which has tumbled 8 per cent in the past two months and hit its yearly lows earlier this month.
Canola has been somewhat insulated to the falls in the broader oilseed complex because canola stocks remain relatively tight.
However, for Glenlee, Victoria, farmers Greg and Adam Schwedes, the primary concern will be producing a crop before worrying about pricing.
“It has been a wet start to the season, which is great, but it provides its own set of challenges,” Greg said.
He said he was relatively pleased with the emergence of canola crops, but added it had been slow to germinate.
“From here, it is just a matter of ensuring we stay on top of all the pests and weeds, there are reports of bug numbers building up so we need to be aware of that.”
“We won’t start getting too fussed about what the price is doing until there is more certainty about production.”