THE run of hot weather is set to further exacerbate what has fast become a challenging winter cropping season in the Riverina.
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Yields have already been revised down. Many crops have been cut for hay and others have stock grazing on them due to low yields and frost damage.
The picture nationally isn't any better with with Rabobank's Australian Winter Crop Outlook signalling a tonnage of 27.7 million, the smallest since 2007 and 2008.
This is a drop of 9 per cent on last year's result.
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"There is no 'sugar coating' the fact Australia's grains industry is suffering the ongoing severe impacts of drought," says report co-author, Rabobank senior grains analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon. Dr Kalisch Gordon said for many of Australia's grain-producing regions, this would be the third consecutive year of severely drought-affected production.
"This means that the tough times are getting tougher and the tail of enduring impacts of the drought is getting longer," she says. "And these impacts don't just apply to cash flow for growers - they also relate to stymied expansion plans, as well as growing soil and resource management challenges."
In the Riverina frosted crops, combined with a dry season has taken a toll. NSW Farmers Wagga and district branch chairman, Alan Brown said hopefully the barley crop will offer some reprieve. However, he said it still wasn't going to be good.
"Around this area the frost damage is extensive," he said.