Crop Report

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Minister, can you advise the house regarding the state's cropping performance this year?

The SPEAKER: I was up at Freeling this morning and it looked like five tonnes to the hectare.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:37): Thanks, Mr Speaker. I thank the member for Light and acknowledge the great work he does on behalf of the farmers in his community. We have something maybe a little bit more reliable than the observations of the Speaker: we have the regular crop report, which will be released today, which gives an insight into this year's season.

You did mention Freeling. Corbin Schuster, who is a friend out there, posted back in June 134 years of rainfall records for Freeling. The number of years in which no rainfall was recorded in June: zero. If nothing happens in the next two weeks, this may be the first. It was a very, very late start to the season in most parts of South Australia, with the exception, I suggest, of the South-East. I was down at Mount Light farm with Craig Hole in May and he was bogged out there seeding. We know the South-East had a couple of really dry years, so it is good to see that they are back on their feet down there in the member for MacKillop's area.

Last year, of course, we had a record grain harvest of 11.1 million tonnes, which was a fantastic result for farmers. Unfortunately, the global prices were not as high as we would have liked, but still it was an unbelievable crop for those people. We have had eight grain harvests above the 10-year average, which has been terrific for our farmers. The 10-year average is 7.7 million tonnes. Of course, we are going to be down on that this year, but most farmers I have been speaking to, particularly around Yorke Peninsula—I was up at the field days at Paskeville a couple of weeks ago—were putting things in perspective, that after eight good seasons they had come to expect that things would not always be as good as they had been in previous years.

We have 12,000 people employed directly or indirectly in the grain sector, and of course one in five working South Australians is employed in the agribusiness sector. The season has seen considerable improvement since the big dry of June and the very late start to the season. Rain in early July enabled farmers to complete seeding, particularly on Lower Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula and Fleurieu Peninsula. Unfortunately, the July rains were too late for farmers on Western Eyre Peninsula. I am sure the member for Flinders is well aware of what has happened over there. So, while extra paddocks were sown, not all the original intended crop area was completed.

The total area sown is around 10 per cent less than recent crops and well below the average 3.55 million hectares. However, with the reversal of poor seasonal conditions, crop production prospects have improved, with most districts reporting variable production potential. This has meant that South Australia's 2017-18 estimated grain harvest has been revised upwards to 6.7 million tonnes but below, as I said, the 10-year average of 7.7 million tonnes, which has been lifted in recent years because of those great harvests we have had—from an earlier prediction of 6.4 million tonnes—and there is an estimated farmgate value of $1.7 billion.

I would like to congratulate the farmers because, although we have a smaller area being cropped, the returns that we are getting on those areas is much higher than it would have been 20 years ago because of the great innovation and practices that farmers right across the state are putting in. I wish all our farmers all the very best because we can't count the harvest until it's in the silos, so we hope for a good spring to finish things off.