IMPACTS of one of the wettest starts to spring are being increasingly felt by grain farmers.
Agronomists are saying that tens of thousands of hectares of crops may be lost as flood waters sweep through parts of the central west and north west NSW.
The worst affected areas in the central west along the Lachlan River where Forbes and Condobolin have been devastated.
For the most part, farmers are grateful for the rain, with most areas primed for one of their best winter grain harvests on record.
But for some farmers in NSW and Victoria, the big wet comes at a substantial cost, with crops washed out and significant damage to roads, fences and other infrastructure.
Concerns are also building about harvesting logistics. Growers are worried how the saturated soils will manage the heavy machinery, particularly the massive headers, chaser binds as well as trucks to move the grain from paddocks to storage.
Most believe the wet September will delay the harvest by about 10 days as crops take longer to develop with the optimal growing conditions.
Unwanted light rain continues across much of the Canadian Prairies which is leading to lower than normal quality grades.
Global importers are sensitive towards supplies of better quality milling wheat grades following the poor European harvest, patchy quality in the Black Sea, the wet harvest in Canada as well as questions over quality the upcoming Australian harvest.
New season wheat prices were steady to higher last week with the largest gains seen for the higher protein grades. New season APW multi grade bids were down $1 at $236 Newcastle last week but the premium for APH jumped by $11 a tonne from last week to $258/t.
Despite the uncertainty over the quality of the coming wheat harvest, Australian exporters are becoming more positive towards the export prospects as more countries put up their hand to buy wheat.
Last week India lowered their duty on wheat imports to 10 per cent from the previous 25 per cent, in an effort to cool local prices following consecutive poor harvests.
India reportedly bought good volumes of Australian and Ukrainian wheat already in anticipation of a cut in the import duty.
Excessive rainfall has also resulted in some disease problems, particularly chickpeas.
New crop chickpea prices have rallied by $100/t to $150/t in the past two weeks as farmers become nervous about fulfilling their existing sales commitments.
Farmers had sold a significant proportion of their crop forward, taking advantage of high early prices and fears that the record large planting would put pressure on prices.
The extent of chickpea losses is far from clear, but the production concerns has been enough to push prices higher.
