02/13/08 Australia could see dry planting conditions for wheat

Farm and Ranch February 13, 2008 Australian farmers have just harvested their second consecutive drought ravaged wheat crop. The poor crop down under has of course been one of the factors behind record world wheat prices. What will conditions be like for Australia's next wheat crop, which will be planted in a few months? Dr. Art Douglas, retired professor of atmospheric sciences at Creighton University, spoke at the Pacific Northwest Farm Forum in Spokane this week. Douglas: "Southwest Australia, southeast Australia, they have primarily a winter maximum in precip. Down there that means June, July, August and September. So we are not likely to see these two areas change until we get well into July, August and September. So they are going to go into their planting season dry. With La Nina on the other hand, this area has a pretty good chance that come September, October, we are going to see that these areas are back closer to normal. But going into the planting season they are going to have a problem." It wasn't surprising that Australia had a drought during the El Nino weather pattern, but two straight years? Douglas says Australia had an earlier start on El Nino and therefore drought, than the rest of the world. Douglas: "And La Nina just didn't develop strong enough move off South America towards the dateline in time for Australia to get wet. So Australia had two winter wheat growing seasons that were relatively on the dry side." Winter wheat seeding will start down under in April. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.