Farmers raced against the clock last week to get as much grain harvested before forecasted rain arrived.
The surge in harvesting activity was reflected in strong grain deliveries into the Graincorp network before the rain stalled things on Friday. Victoria recorded deliveries of close to half a million tonnes in the rain-shortened week. This lifted the total Victorian harvest grain delivered to 1.32 million tonnes, approaching the half-way mark. Farmers are unsure of how the grain quality will hold up after the inundation, but fear grades will suffer.
Victorian prices for Hard 2, APW and ASW strengthened ahead of the rain on fears of potential quality downgrading on unharvested crops.
However, these prices eased on Monday as it became apparent the quality damage was likely to be less than feared.