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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-11-17 Daily Xml
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Grain Harvest

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Minister, can you update the house on how the spring weather conditions have affected this year's grain crop and, in particular, the canola harvest of Mr Joe Honner?

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) (15:03): I'm not sure how Joe is going down there with the canola but, in general terms, Warooka on lower Yorke Peninsula missed a lot of the heat in early October: it wasn't as hot. They have had problems with snails more so than mid to northern Yorke Peninsula, and the canola wasn't too bad because they had flowered before the real heat of early October.

It is interesting just how much the farmers rely on lucky breaks with the weather. There were a few of us over at Minnipa on 2 September and we could not hear ourselves in the shed because it was raining so loudly. A month later, the member for Goyder and I, and a few others, were at the Yorke Peninsula field days, over at Paskeville, and everything looked good. The crops looked fantastic all around the place. The only thing that didn't look good was the weather forecast for the upcoming weekend. Kadina was forecast to have 37º and then those hot northerlies hit.

Just a few weeks earlier, we had been predicting a statewide crop of 7.6 million tonnes. The latest crop report we are going to put out this afternoon has downgraded that to 7.1 million tonnes. I guess there would be some who would say we are probably lucky it wasn't worse than that. 7.1 million tonnes is above the 10-year average, which we had to upgrade earlier in the year to 6.9 million tonnes because we have had six above-10-year average harvests in a row. I guess it is good that we are above that 10-year average, but not as good as we could have been, looking at earlier in the year.

One of the areas that we are particularly worried about is the Upper South-East, because they have had two really tough years. We will be down there as part of the community cabinet next week, and I am going to host a community forum at the Naracoorte Hotel next Monday at 1 o'clock. We invite any farmers or members of the public to come along. We want to hear the sorts of effects that these two really dry years have had on people down there.

I have spoken to some of the farmers and some of the stock agents, and they say that because they have had some good seasons most of them have managed to put some money away, so they are going to ride it out and hopefully have a better season next year. But they are worried about contractors and people like truck drivers because, when you have to cut back on your spending on the farm, they are the first things that you cut back on. We know that we have to listen to what people are saying down there and see what sort of action we can take.

In general terms, if we look at the statewide summary, rainfall from September ranged from very much below average in parts of the South-East to average in the Northern Mallee and parts of Eyre Peninsula. October rainfall was the lowest on record for most of the Lower South-East and very much below average for most of the agricultural areas. The Northern Mallee and parts of the Mid and Upper North were below average.

Growing season rainfall ranged from very much below average in the South-East and parts of the Southern Mallee, Southern Yorke Peninsula and Lower Eyre Peninsula to average in the Upper North and Central Eyre Peninsula. Mean maximum temperatures for September were near average for most of the state; however, hot, windy conditions were observed on that October long weekend (4 and 5October) across the state's agricultural areas.

Mean maximum temperatures for October were the highest on record for the majority of the state, with Lower Eyre Peninsula, western Kangaroo Island and the Lower Lakes area being very much above average—so, pretty harsh conditions indeed with all that heat we had throughout October. Harvest began early in the Upper North, and other districts began soon after—that was the first week of October. This is two to three weeks earlier than usual in most areas of the state.

Significant loss of crop yield potential has occurred in most districts as a result of below average September rainfall, combined with hot, windy conditions in early October, resulting in stressed crops. At the end of September, yield potential on most of Eyre Peninsula and the Upper, Mid and Lower North were well above average. Hot, dry conditions reduced crop yield potential—

The SPEAKER: Alas, the minister's time has expired.

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