Fall of cotton area influences Australian crop forecast

The area planted to summer crops is forecast to fall by 1.7% to around 1.56 million hectares, which largely reflects an estimated 26.3% fall in the area planted to cotton to 442,000 hectares. The forecast fall in the area planted to cotton is largely driven by an expected 85% reduction in the area planted to dryland cotton, according to Australian Crop Report published by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) in December.

Favourable grains prices and falling cotton prices have made sorghum a more attractive option to producers than dryland cotton. The area planted to sorghum is forecast to rise by 16% to around 762,000 hectares. The area planted to rice is forecast to rise by 12% to around 121,000 hectares, which largely reflects plentiful supplies of irrigation water.

The area planted to rice is forecast to rise by 12% in 2012–13 to around 121,000 hectares, reflecting plentiful supplies of irrigation water in southern New South Wales.

Total Australian winter crop production is forecast to be around 35.1 million tonnes in 2012–13, which is a 23% fall from the record production of the previous year and around 1.1 million tonnes (3%) lower than forecast in September. Production is forecast to fall in all states, with the largest fall expected in Western Australia.

For the major winter crops, wheat production is forecast to fall by 26% in 2012–13 to around 22.0 million tonnes, barley production is forecast to fall by 18% to around 6.9 million tonnes and canola production is forecast to fall by 16% in 2012–13 to around 2.6 million tonnes.

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