Weather Driven Harvest

By Chris Johnson
18^th November 2025

With harvest in Queensland slowing down, Northern NSW isn’t much further behind, except for the later-planted wheat and chickpea crops north and west of Narrabri. The Liverpool Plains continues to be stop-and-start, having been subjected to most of the more severe weather events in the last couple of weeks, with wheat and barley the main focus and chickpeas mostly still green. Central Western harvest is probably finding its peak, while further south progress has been slower. Victorian and South Australian sites have begun receiving some grain, but it has been somewhat stop-start with recent weather events, keeping headers parked up as often as they have been going.

While wheat yields have impressed in the north, grain quality has been mixed and appears to show the reduction in tonnes being received by the Bulk Handlers year to date, with growers looking to use their on-farm storage for the lower quality (ASW1/AGP1) that they can look to sell domestically from January onwards, while sending their milling grades (APW/H2/APH2) into the system. End users seem comfortable that the grain will be available for the next 12 months and have mostly sat back from engaging with growers for at-harvest deliveries, though the sheer volume of tonnes stored on farm will likely weigh heavily on prices in the short term.
Similarly to wheat, barley crops have been outstanding in the north for the most part, and supply for the next 12 months is more than assured. Prices seem capped around $310 delivered Darling Downs homes for January onwards delivery, in what is a bit of a stalemate between the grower and the end user. Southern crops have surprised given the season they have endured. Local prices have been supported by the anticipated demand from Chinese buyers, given our pricing is competitive against Northern Hemisphere suppliers.

Canola prices continue to hold, while international markets for canola and soybeans trade up and down on political rhetoric between the US and China, and reports of record South American acreage plantings. The domestic crusher has been working hard to buy tonnes from growers to keep their programs full for the next 12 months, with yield more average in the north and mostly below the more recent year averages in the south. Quality has also been reported as mixed across the entire east coast growing region, with the finish a little hard on some crops, resulting in oils below the standard 42%.

Sorghum growers have benefited from these last few rain events, with planting now likely to get back underway across the Downs and Northern NSW/Liverpool Plains growing regions for those that had pulled up as the soil moisture became too variable to ensure a good start to some paddocks. Prices for sorghum remain firm relative to wheat and barley, but growers seem more focused on watching the crop grow rather than marketing it at this stage.