Farmers eye El Nino forecast

McGregor Gourlay senior agronomist Scott Rogers, Croppa Creek, said the season around Moree was looking promising with a good moisture profile.

"There are some areas west of the Newell Highway that aren't looking quite as good as in other parts of the region," Mr Rogers said.

Yet he said, generally, the area planted to summer crop would probably be down across the district.

"The summer crop area will probably be back a little bit, with the area planted to sorghum down given strong chickpea prices."

Mr Rogers said given the high chickpea prices, the area set aside for a summer crop had instead been planted to chickpeas to take advantage of the strong market.

He said dryland cotton was looking to be a popular choice for some farmers, particularly those looking to switch to this crop for weed management, while there should also be some areas planted to mungbeans with growers choosing a quicker option to try and avoid a dry summer.

Generally, he said summer crop planting was set to kick off from late August.

"The sorghum plant could possibly be a little bit earlier this year, as a lot of growers are nervous about the long-range forecast," Mr Rogers said.

"Given concerns about El Nino, some growers won't look to plant dryland cotton."

As for last year's summer crop, Mr Rogers said the early planted crops in the district had struggled due to some dry conditions, whereas the later planted crops were able to take advantage of some rain.

In the state's south, NorAg Consulting agronomist Mark Norvall, Leeton, said seasonal conditions were pleasing at the moment.

"The rain has been really good, and is above average compared to this time last year," he said.

"We are, however, hanging out a little bit for water allocations to be announced - water allocations are still low at this point in time."

Mr Norvall said there was still a good deal of positivity among growers heading into the summer crop.

"Commodity prices are also looking pretty good."

Crops set to dominate across the region this summer would include rice, cotton, soybeans, and corn.

"I think it will be fairly consistent on last year - I don't think there's going to be huge variations," Mr Norvall said.

"There might be a slight increase in cotton, but that also depends on the allocations."

He said in the past four to five- years the cotton crop had expanded across the region with an increase in area as growers looked at cotton as an alternative to other crops.

Initially, that was rice, with growers switching to cotton, but Mr Norvall said rice had also rebounded quite well since the end of the drought.

He said the area planted to rice was set to be fairly strong.

Despite the threat of an El Nino, Mr Norvall said growers were reasonably confident about summer crop prospects at present.

He said some planting would be expected to kick off in late September, while the main start to summer crop planting across the district would start at the beginning of October.

Elders Finley branch manager and agronomist Stacey Doolan said a big concern among growers at the moment were water allocations.

She said normally the district was a large rice growing area, but she expected the area planted to rice to be down as much as 50 per cent this year given low allocations.

Mrs Doolan said some of those growers would probably be pursuing maize as an alternative, but she hadn't heard of anybody talking soybeans yet, but that would not need to be determined until November

The rice plant was set to get underway in October, corn in November, and soybeans from November to December.

She said the mood among growers could be described as pessimistic given the water allocations, but hopeful of getting a good winter crop off.

High hopes for a solid summer

QUIRINDI grower Brian Fletcher is yet to decide exactly what he will plant for this year's summer crop but he will be using this week's Commonwealth Bank AgQuip field days to get an idea of the best crop to pursue.

Mr Fletcher, who is pictured with last year's summer crop of Moonbi variety soybeans, said he might consider planting sorghum this year.

Whatever he does decide to grow, things are currently looking positive on his property, "Marydale".

"The season is looking pretty good at the moment, there's a good profile of moisture too," he said.

He plans to start planting across his 40-hectare property in October.

Now semi-retired, Mr Fletcher had previously farmed across more land, about 160ha.

Previous crops grown on the property through the years have included soybeans, corn, sunflowers, as well as wheat and barley.

He said last year's soybean crop unfortunately was affected by the lucerne crownborer insect which had reduced his yields, and so he was hoping for greater summer crop success this year.

Mr Fletcher farms with his wife Val and has been on the property for 45 years.