Australian Wheat Forecasters (AWF) has slightly reduced its estimate for Australia's 2005/06 wheat crop to 23.97 million tonnes, it said on Monday in its seventh production forecast for the season.
The private forecaster revised down its target by 160,000 tonnes from the previous 24.13 million tonnes, though it remains higher than the 20.61 million tonnes produced in the drought-affected 2004/05 season.
A large crop was expected in Western Australia, with increased production estimates also in New South Wales and South Australia, AWF said.
However, these gains have been negated by a reduction in the forecasts for Victoria and Queensland due to slow crop development and the reduced likelihood of better rains in October.