AS Central Queensland growers ramp up for the summer grains plant, the state's largest sorghum seed provider has a shortage of high-quality seed.
Pacific Seeds managing director Barry Croker said the weather conditions last summer hampered his company's seed production, from southern NSW to the Ord in Western Australia.
The company's sorghum varieties are the most popular choice in Queensland.
"We're experiencing strong demand for our products which is a positive, but also the climatic conditions over the past 12 months have been difficult for producing quality seed," he said. "We're a producer like any producer, and we have had to deal with above-average rainfall, floods, and all those types of issues."
Mr Croker said quantity would be down but seed would still be available. He agreed the quality of this seed - particularly germination test results - was down.
"The quality is lower than we would normally put into the marketplace," he said. "It's usable, but it doesn't meet our normal high standards. It ... would be suitable in most conditions."
Mr Croker hopes to return to a normal production cycle this season.
"We're certainly working towards having better supplies and quality going forward," he said. "There is only so much we can control, and the weather is one thing we can't ... so we'll see what happens over the next three months."
AgForce Grains president Wayne Newton said the shortage of good-quality seed from Pacific Seeds would "significantly impact on this summer sorghum planting".
Mr Newton expects the other major providers of sorghum seed in Queensland - Pioneer Seeds and HSR Seeds - to make up the deficit. As such, he doesn't expect a major drop in the amount of hectares planted to sorghum this summer.
Pioneer Seeds national marketing manager James Holden told Queensland Country Life his company had a "very good supply of all hybrids and seed treatment". Pioneer Seeds grew most of its seed in the Macquarie and Lachlan Valleys in NSW last summer.
"Our production team did a great job and we've got good supply for Central Queensland," he said. "We've got a very good production team and we've also got hybrids that we know we can produce well, that produce high-quality seed."
"Even though we had to make some hard choices four or five years ago, we've now got a range of hybrids which are high yielding, that we know we can produce. It means we can deliver that consistent supply ... year in, year out."
HSR Seeds managing director Rodney Coe said his company had shortages in its most popular sorghum variety, Dominator, but this was more to do with strong southern Queensland demand.
He said the wet conditions had made growing large quantities of good-quality sorghum seed "a little bit difficult".
"We'll probably be a little short on Dominator, but we've got a few other varieties that should make it up."
