Australian Floods Continue To Hamper Agriculture Sector Activity

Australian Floods Continue To Hamper Agriculture Sector Activity

Widespread flooding in northern New South Wales and Queensland states is hampering the movement of livestock and curbing cattle supply in saleyards, with more rainfall forecast, marketing concern Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd. said.

In Queensland, which accounts for about half of Australia’s beef production, cattle sales were concentrated in the southeastern corner of the state, as most other physical markets were canceled this week due to flooding, the MLA said in a weekly report.

The effects of localized flooding and waterlogged paddocks lingered in parts of northern New South Wales, where saleyard throughput was also restricted, it said.

Meanwhile, Cotton Australia estimated Thursday that damage from the floods could cut output from the crop to be stripped in the coming months by about 10%, to around 1.02 million metric tons, a loss that the lobby group’s Chief Executive Adam Kay estimated would cost the industry about A$250 million.

In a preliminary estimate this week, the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries said the floods would likely lead to losses totaling A$750 million–from damage to crops, infrastructure and livestock.

The farmers in much of northern New South Wales are suffering the effects of a second flood in the past several months after a harvest of ripe winter crops late in 2011 was delayed and damaged, while Queensland farmers are experiencing their third major flood in two years.

While the floods are easing in some areas, the MLA reported that wet conditions continued in eastern Australia this past week.

“After weeks of solid rain, many towns throughout this region have experienced a record wet summer, with further rainfall forecast for the next seven days,” it said in a statement.

These latest rains come after what the Bureau of Meteorology said this week was Australia’s “wettest two-year period on record” in 2010 and 2011.

Back-to-back La Nina events resulted in a two-year average rainfall across Australia for 2010 and 2011 of 1409 millimeters, surpassing the old record of 1407 millimeters set in 1973 and 1974, the bureau said.

Some of the heaviest rains in 2010 and 2011 fell along the east coast, from Cape York to Sydney, with some areas receiving more than 3,600 millimeters in the period, while vast swathes of Queensland and northern New South Wales received falls in of 1,600-2,400 millimeters.