Western Australia closes off on 2023 crop at 14.53 million tons

Wheat

Published Feb 14, 2024

Tridge summary

Western Australia's winter-crop harvest for 2023-24 has increased by 2% from December, reaching 14.53 million tonnes, according to the Grain Industry Association of WA. However, this is lower than the record years of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The five-year grain production average to 2023 is 18Mt, up 18% from the five-year average to 2018. Despite varying rainfall, grain production and quality continue to rise. However, hot and dry conditions may lead to a reduction in crop area and changes in cropping plans. The next few months will determine the change in canola area and the wheat-barley split, largely dependent on the timing of the season break and autumn rain.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

WESTERN Australia’s latest winter-crop harvest has weighed in at 14.53 million tonnes (Mt), according to the Grain Industry Association of WA’s final estimates for the season released this week in its 2023-24 harvest summary. The estimate is up 2 per cent from 14.28Mt seen in GIWA’s December Crop Report, but is close to half the production seen in the record years of 2021-22 and 2022-23 at 24.01Mt and 26.06Mt respectively. “For many growers, total rainfall received in 2023 was well down on 2019 rainfall, when 11.3Mt was produced on a similar area of crop sown,” GIWA report author Michael Lamond said. “Subtle improvements in production systems are tending to buffer the downside of these poor years and push grain yields well beyond previous records in good seasons.” GIWA puts WA’s five-year grain production average to 2023 at 18Mt, up 18pc from the five-year average to 2018 of 15.2Mt. “Whilst there is more area of crop being sown now than 10 years ago, the increased variability of ...

Source: Graincentral