Growers on the Southern Downs are facing skyrocketing input costs – fertilizer and fuel – a critical lack of water and a looming super El Nino weather forecast not seen since 2019. In fact, most winter crops are not being planted at all.
About 60 percent of Australia’s fertiliser originates in the Persian Gulf where it is manufactured using ammonia, a by product of natural gas or coal. Shipments are sent through the Strait of Hormuz which, depending on what day it is, is either shut, blockaded, or too unsafe for ships to navigate.
The Town & Country Journal spoke to grower Ross Bartley, who said that fertiliser prices have surged from approximately $850 per ton to $1500 per ton. “Huge, huge increase and no quantity of”, agrees Connie Taylor, president of the Granite Belt Growers Association. Availability is becoming as significant a hurdle as price, with farmers forced, as Ross says, to “order and keep their fingers crossed”.
“The next kicker is if you can get it,” Ross said. “Everyone’s worried about it.”
Mr Bartley also said that major wheat producing regions like Moree are expected to miss their winter planting window entirely. “So hang on to your hat. Not only are we in the middle of a war and the middle of a drought, it’s all going to compound the problem”.
Traditionally, Ross says, oat-growers would have oats “coming out of the ground now” but there’s not enough moisture in the ground to plant. “There hasn’t been any rain of significance since Christmas. In some places, they haven’t had any since September.”
Connie calls it “critically dry”.
“And we’re concerned about bushfires as well, which then require diesel and water to put said fires out. It’s a vicious, vicious cycle at the minute.”
Connie told that paper that most growers at the southern end of the shire are at the end of their harvesting season so fuel costs are currently a more pressing operational burden than fertilizer, though both are viewed as prohibitive for the next cycle.
The federal government is currently in talks with Indonesia and her neighbours to secure alternative supply sources. However, the triple whammy of threats to growers in the Southern Downs will most certainly reduce yields significantly and increase food prices down the supply chain.
