Grain Harvest

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:27): I rise today to talk about this year's cereal harvest, which, of course, is underway right across South Australia. Some in the far west of the state are drawing to a close, some have completed their harvest out there, and I guess in the South-East, the Mid South-East and Lower South-East it is yet to get underway. However, for the most part the state's harvest is about 50 per cent of the way through.

The PIRSA Crop and Pasture Report for South Australia was released updated in November just gone, and there are some interesting figures to come from that. The total crop estimate for South Australia, according to that report, will be 7.48 million tonnes of grain from 4.05 million hectares. That is slightly below the long-term average, but I have to say that over the last half a dozen years or so South Australia's farmers have been remarkably consistent in their production of grain. Ever since the drought finished in 2009-10 we have averaged about 8.2 or 8.3 million tonnes of grain. This year is estimated to come in slightly below that.

Eyre Peninsula—which, of course, the electorate of Flinders covers a good part of—is estimated to produce around 2.6 million tonnes of grain, so just a little over one-third of the state's grain crop comes from Eyre Peninsula. That is pretty much in line with the average. It has not been a particularly easy year, so my congratulations go to the farmers who are producing this crop. It was characterised by good early rains right across the state. In fact, I remember hearing that Smoky Bay, which has an average rainfall of about 250 millimetres per annum, had achieved its entire average rainfall by the end of June. That set them up well with good soil moisture, and it occurred right across much of the state's wheat belt.

That was money in the bank, in a sense, because to follow up on good early rain and quite an exceptionally wet winter we have seen a very dry spring in recent months. That dry spring was characterised in some areas by the lowest rainfall on record. But the challenges went further than that: there were warm temperatures and a little bit of frost damage as well. So those warm days—those big highs that were sitting over the state—resulted in very cold nights as well as some frost damage throughout the grain belt.

It is a credit to the farmers to achieve what they have with a challenging season, and there are a number of reasons for that. Obviously, technology is advancing and farmers are at the forefront of adopting new technologies, whether it be in the area of machinery, varieties, or farming systems, and farming systems are always changing. One wheat variety, in particular, has been mentioned a lot. The former member for Stuart was talking to me yesterday evening about the wheat variety, mace, which is grown on a good part of South Australia's wheat belt and also returning remarkable yields.

Prices have kicked a little bit in recent weeks: APW wheat is around $2.80, $2.90 a tonne, export barley is performing well relative to wheat, returning around $2.60 to $2.65 a tonne; lentils are up around $900; durum is a real star this year, and those growers who are still growing durum wheat (and most of that is in the lower and Mid North regions) are returning around $570 a tonne; and canola is about where it normally sits at this time of the year, at $450 to $500 a tonne. So, prices have kicked a little bit in recent weeks, and that is good news.

We are $10 to $20 a tonne above our colleagues and competitors in Western Australia, and my understanding is that a lot of that is an advantage we have managed to gain through the allocation of shipping and the auction or bidding system the ports in South Australia adopt. So, 6.2 million tonnes of shipping were committed prior to harvest, which really set up a good situation going into harvest because, of course, the storage and handling system comes under pressure during harvest, but knowing there is shipping on the way is a good thing. Congratulations to the state's farmers on another great season.