South West WA

Grain commentary

Hay commentary

A great general rain through the majority of cereal hay producing districts.
Bunbury got some follow up (60mm) which was sorely needed to keep germinating grasses and clovers going. It will be some weeks before pastures are in a condition to graze and supply adequate nutrition to dairy herds.
As conditions are cooling and pasture growth is slowing the consumption of hay is increasing to the point where local trading of pasture hay is occurring.
At this point there is no domestic demand for cereal hay from the dairy industry.
For the 2011 calendar year Western Australia exported just under 189000 tonnes of hay. This represents 30% of the total hay exports from Australia.
Little straw was made this season given the staining from spring rains. Very little will be available for export and domestic livestock markets. Composters will still be able to use weather damaged straw that is available.
There are some isolated crops that were cut and baled with little or no weather damage. This cereal hay is finding its way into horse markets at a premium price of around $450/mt.
The majority of the hay crop however was weather damaged and not achieving high to medium export grades. Most hay crops suffered extreme rain damage and hay has lost most of the nutrient value and colour
Increasingly hay exporters have managed to secure markets for their lower grade hay this season as there has been a world-wide shortage of hay
Cheap roughage hay is in ready supply but nutritional results indicate poor performance can be expected in a dairy diet