Australia's national winter crop production is tipped to be 20 per cent below the 20-year average, as farmers grapple with drought across large parts of the nation's east.
The federal government's agriculture forecaster has released its latest crop report, which predicts winter crop production to be 23 per cent below last year.
ABARES executive director Steve Hatfield-Dodds said winter crop prospects deteriorated in early spring because of conditions in most cropping regions.
"While production in New South Wales and Queensland is forecast to be the lowest in over 20 years, we expect national production to be substantially higher than in the droughts of 2002/03 and 2006/07," Dr Hatfield-Dodds said.
He said above-average October rainfall helped crop prospects in NSW, Victoria's southern Wimmera, southern South Australia and Western Australia.
"However, it arrived too late in other regions to benefit winter crops," Dr Hatfield-Dodds said.
WA is expected to account for 56 per cent of national winter crop production in 2018/19, compared with an average of 36 per cent in the 20 years to 2017/18.
Some welcome late spring rainfall in NSW and Queensland has helped summer crop planting.
Dr Hatfield-Dodds said the Bureau of Meteorology predicted no strong tendency toward either above or below average summer rainfall in NSW cropping regions.
Summer rainfall in Queensland is likely to be below average.
"Prospects for summer crops will be highly dependent on sufficient and timely rainfall because of low levels of soil moisture in a number of regions," Dr Hatfield-Dodds said.
MAJOR WINTER CROP PRODUCTION 2018/19 FORECAST
* Wheat down 20 per cent to about 17 million tonnes
* Barley down 18 per cent to about 7.3 million tonnes
* Canola down 39 per cent to about 2.2 million tonnes
* Overall production down 23 per cent to about 29.2 million tonnes.
