RECENT rain has provided a welcome boost for NSW wheat growers.
Many farmers have had a great start to the season and are enjoying good price prospects.
AgVantage grain marketer Sam Clements, Narrabri, said from a price point of view growers were happy and confidence was high.
"There's definitely been a much better start than we had in the past couple of years," he said.
"We've had pretty good general rain across the area - a pocket west of Cryon in the Walgett district had missed out - but we did see the selling pick up at the end of last week."
That has continued through to this week, and he said wheat was starting to be sold for the October/ November period.
"Calls have jumped in the past week," he said.
Mr Clements said wheat prices of about $300 a tonne (ex farm, north of Moree) and from $280/t to $290/t around Narrabri, were encouraging.
Overseas, there were weather concerns in the US.
"They (US growers) are trying to harvest high protein milling wheat at the moment, but they are being hampered by rain," Mr Clements said.
In the state's south igrain Riverina senior account manager Machallie McCormack said many crops had the benefit of recent rain, but it was still early days with a long way to go before the headers hit the wheat.
"We have had some good rain throughout the Riverina across the past month or so, but El Nino is still a big talking point," Ms McCormack said.
"One of the things with this season is we had a brilliant harvest last year, and quality was good, and so the cashflow side of things is not as big an issue as it has been in previous years.
"At this point, there is not a necessity to sell."
However she said a lot of growers had been saying they would look to start selling grain now July 1 has passed in this new financial year.
"Not a lot of wheat stock is left on farm though - it is an unusual season in the sense we had a good harvest with good pricing last year, so there was not a lot of incentive for guys to store their grain," she said.
She also said the quality of the wheat last year was good.
"It was a win-win situation for them."
Ms McCormack said domestic wheat prices had been strong recently, and had been driven by dry conditions.
"Now we have had some rain you would expect some retraction, but it also depends on what is happening in the rest of the world," she said.
"As domestic prices have been so high, we haven't been as competitive in the world market; the higher protein market hasn't been as competitive as in previous years."
"But I don't think there would be a grain grower that would be complaining about the high prices."
Pentag Nidera accumulation manager Steve Sloss said rain in the past fortnight across a large section of the cropping belt had been very beneficial.
Mr Sloss said the rain was an excellent outcome for NSW growers, particularly in light of worries about the arrival of El Nino.
AWB estimated pool returns in the North Eastern Region for 2014-15 remain at $337/t for Australian Standard White (ASW1), and at $339/t for Australian Premium White (APW1).
Spitfire success at Guerie
SPITFIRE wheat planted on "Terra Bella" has proved successful in the past and thanks to early in-crop rain it is shaping up to be another winner on the Stevenson family's Geurie property.
Rodney Stevenson and his son Scott (pictured) grow a mix of crops on the family property.
Mr Stevenson said they had been growing Spitfire wheat for a few years now and it had performed well, so it was planted again for this season.
"We had a good year last year, we got it all harvested before any downgrading, so we got an Australian Prime Hard (APH1) grade and $303 a tonne (on farm)," he said.
Aside from wheat, this winter they have planted lupins, grazing oats and chickpeas.
Two weeks ago the crops received a boost from falls of between 40 and 45 millimetres.
"It has kept the frost at bay, and it is just what the doctor ordered," he said.
This year they have planted about 540 hectares of wheat, 120ha of lupins and 16ha of chickpeas.
