Australia Wheat Latest

Australia will produce 22.7 MMT of wheat this year, ABARE said today, that's an increase of 0.7 MMT from last month's estimate.

It also coincides quite nicely with Rabobank's 22.8 MMT, although it's half a million tonnes higher than the Commonwealth Bank's estimate of 22.2 MMT.

What everybody seems agreed upon is that the crop in Western Australia state looks to be in good shape, and could come in around the 13 MMT mark this year.

Elsewhere things are a mixed bag, with high temperatures and strong northerly winds causing some damage to crops in Southern Australia in the past week, a farm systems consultant at Rural Solutions SA told ABC Rural.

"Three weeks ago right around the state [they] were looking good and, once again, this hot weather has really set things back quite seriously," he said.

In the east, there doesn't appear to be many problems in Victoria, although conditions are less than ideal in parts of northern NSW and Queensland.

In NSW it's a game of two halves. In the north overnight minimum temperatures were up to nine above the September norms, yet in the south of the state seven below average was recorded, with temperatures in Wagga Wagga slipping to minus three degrees.

Queensland seems to be the state worst affected by lack of rainfall (although it typically accounts for less than 10% of national production) with stories here of some crops being abandoned, and others turned over to stock.

ABARE also pegged the 2009/10 barley crop at 7.9 MMT, up from 6.8 MMT in 2008/09 and canola output at 1.72 MMT, down from 1.88 MMT last season.