---
Sent From Bloomberg Mobile MSG
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Australia's NSW State Drought-Free After Nine Years (Update1)
2010-10-21 06:23:54.973 GMT
(Adds analyst comment in fourth paragraph.)
By Wendy Pugh
Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Australia's New South Wales state
declared it was free of drought for the first time in nine years
after above-average rainfall this year boosted wheat crops and
provided water for cotton and rice planting.
"Today marks a great milestone for our farming
communities," New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Steve
Whan said in an e-mailed statement today. Still, some regions
were faced with receiving too much rain and flooding, he said.
Winter-crop production in New South Wales, forecast to be
the largest wheat-growing state in Australia this year, may
almost double to a record after wet weather, the federal
government's commodity forecaster said last month. The state was
last drought-free in June 2001, with the affected area reaching
99.5 percent in April 2003, according to today's statement.
"The recovery has been just simply dramatic," Wayne
Gordon, an agricultural commodities analyst at Rabobank Groep NV,
said by phone from Sydney. "You don't wish upon yourself drier
weather, but certainly to get the cotton crop in the ground and
to get the winter harvest under way, farmers need to see some
dry days," he said.
Wheat for December delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade
fell 0.6 percent to $6.7925 at 4:43 p.m. Melbourne time,
trimming this year's advance to 25 percent.
Winter Crops
Total winter crop production in New South Wales, including
wheat, barley and canola, may reach an all-time high 14.5
million metric tons, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and
Resource Economics-Bureau of Rural Sciences said in a report
Sept. 14. Wheat production may be 9.88 million tons compared
with 5.1 million tons last year, it forecast.
Improved crop conditions in New South Wales this year
offset a slump in Western Australia's grain production caused by
dry weather. National wheat output may be at the lower end of a
22-million to 23-million-ton range, Rabobank forecast this month.
Waterlogging, frost and stripe-rust disease affected some
crops, while there remained the risk of damage from locusts and
mice, Whan said. The area of the state remaining in drought had
dropped to 4.2 percent last month from 7.1 percent in August,
according to the statement.
Australia had its wettest September on record as a La Nina
weather event, characterized by cooling Pacific Ocean
temperatures, brought above-average rainfall to the nation's
north and east, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
"Further rain could jeopardize any bumper harvest," Whan
said. "Farmers need a window of dry weather to start getting
the crop off in the next month or so."
For Related News and Information:
Top commodity stories: CTOP <GO>
Top agricultural stories TOP AGR <GO>
Most read Australian news: MNI AUD <GO>
--Editors: Jarrett Banks, Matthew Oakley
To contact the reporter on this story:
Wendy Pugh in Melbourne +61-3-9228-8736 or
wpugh@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Poole at +65-6212-1551 or
Jpoole4@bloomberg.net.
