Australia's winter grains crops were boosted in the past week by good rains which fell where needed most, across the eastern growing belt.
Wheat areas across New South Wales (NSW) benefited from widespread falls of around 30 millimetres (1.2 inches). The state was hardest hit by drought, which has re-emerged after rainfall this year.
Growers hailed the rain as having come just in time to save parts of the crop in central west NSW. "Rain received this week (was) very timely," a spokesman for national wheat exporter AWB Ltd said.
"For some farmers it was very welcome." Some areas of NSW still needed more rain, he said. But the falls covered the entire growing area of NSW, which in places has barely recovered from the drought of 2002, rated as the worst in a century.
NSW was forecast by government bureau ABARE in June to produce over 7.0 million tonnes of wheat in the current growing year to March 31, 2005, around one-third of the total national crop of 23.3 million tonnes.
This forecast was based on the state receiving average rain and until now falls have been patchy. Western Australia, which is forecast to be Australia's biggest wheat producer again this season with 8.7 million tonnes, missed out on the best of the latest falls.
But this state was not as dry as the eastern states, after receiving rain. In northern NSW and southern Queensland, where sub-soil moisture was already in place, latest rain was a good "top-up" to keep crops in good shape, AWB's spokesman said.
It would especially assist crops in southern NSW and Victoria, which lacked sub-soil moisture. The recent rains helped keep domestic grains prices weak, in line with international trends as ample global wheat crops loom.
Australia's solid 2004/05 crop is adding to supplies. Fox Commodities on Friday said new crop general purpose/feed wheat was weak at A$190 ($133) a tonne in Queensland's Darling Downs, with consumer's hesitant buyers.
Old crop feed wheat was also weak at A$230 a tonne, with little interest from buyers.
Recent rains leave Australia's wheat crop on track for a solid harvest of around 23 million tonnes, down slightly from last season's record of 25 million tonnes.
In its first estimate for the 2004/05 winter crop, handling, storage and trading group GrainCorp Ltd.
This week forecast its total receivables of wheat, barley and canola in Queensland, NSW and Victoria states would rise to 13 million tonnes from 10.8 million tonnes last season.
GrainCorp said recent useful rains had boosted the crop potential, but the forecast was based on assumed average rainfall for the rest of the year.
Australia is the second-largest wheat exporter in the world, after the United States.
It is also a major exporter of the secondary winter crops of barley and canola.