Australian Croppers Warn Winter Harvest Is Not Looking Great

GUNNEDAH, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 3: A failed wheat crop can be seen in a paddock on farmer Trevor Knapman's property located on the outskirts of the north-western New South Wales town of Gunnedah October 3, 2019 in Australia. Lack of rain has forced wheat farmers in the Gunnedah region to turn their failed wheat crops into hay, which they are selling to cattle and sheep farmers desperate to feed their remaining stock as the drought continues across New South Wales. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has declared the ongoing drought across the Murray Darling Basin to be the worst on record, with current conditions now exceeding the Federation Drought (1895-1903), the WWII drought (1937-1947) and the Millennium drought (1997-2009). The Federal and NSW Governments announced a new drought emergency funding plan on Oct. 13, with $1 billion to go to water infrastructure for rural and regional communities impacted by the devastating drought in NSW, including a $650m upgrade of Wyangala Dam in the NSW central west and a $480m new Dungowan Dam near Tamworth. Photo by David Gray/Getty Images

Grain producer Barry Large knew it wasn’t going to be a record harvest but he wasn’t anticipating yields this low.

“It’s not looking great, our yield will be down 50 percent plus,” Mr. Large said of his wheat and barley crops.