HEAVY rain through the Darling Downs has taken its toll on ripe sorghum crops, with reports of high rates of sprouted grain in the sample.
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There was rain of up to 80mm over the weekend in places such as Miles and reports at this week's Australian Summer Grains Conference at the Gold Coast were that there would be pockets of heavily downgraded sorghum.
It is likely the downgraded product will incur a discount of $30-40 a tonne on current sorghum bids of around $400/t.
According to Grain Trade Australia official sorghum receival standards there can be 3 per cent sprouted grain in Sorghum 1, the top quality grade, and 10pc in Sorghum 2.
AgForce grains president Brendan Taylor said there were reports of samples with markedly higher levels of sprouting than that.
"There are photos doing the rounds where the seed looks like a handful of bean shoots, it has all germinated," he said.
Mr Taylor said it was a slight surprise at the level of sprouting problems.
"We're only just getting back into it after the rain but we're hearing reports of places where it seems like there has been sprouting and they've only had 40mm, traditionally you would expect the crop to cope with that."
Mr Taylor said the quality issues would mean a discount for damaged grain and may mean difficulties in finding bulk handling delivery options in the short-term.
However, in a silver lining, traders at the conference said the downgraded product would be in demand from a diverse range of end users from the domestic poultry sector to Chinese lot feeders.
Even allowing for the discount the price is still in excess of long term sorghum 1 average values.
Mr Taylor said farmers were happy with sorghum prices at present.
"It's disappointing for those to lose that cream on the top with the discount for downgrading but prices overall are holding up very well."
Sorghum harvest continues to roll on with crops coming in early after the dry start to 2023 until the recent rain.
Northern NSW has also faced rain delays after falls in the 80mm mark in patches around Moree.
Mr Taylor said there were reports of very strong yields through southern Queensland for early sown crop.
The latest Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences outlook was for a 2.5 million tonne sorghum crop, down on last year's record, but still the fourth highest ever.
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
