The western and southern parts of the Dawson Valley received good rainfall for the month, further adding to the nearly full soil moisture profiles in the area. The southern parts of the Callide Valley have remained dry while the rest of the area received moderate falls during the month. The rain has caused some delay of the sorghum and mung bean harvest. Cotton picking commenced during March with small reductions in quality due to rain following defoliation in some cases. Some mung bean crops still have reasonable subsoil moisture levels after harvest, which could see some paddocks double cropped to wheat, depending on the amount of planting rain received.
Chickpeas are likely to be planted into some of the earlier harvested sorghum crops.
Yield potential of summer crops varies greatly across the region due to the erratic storm rainfall. In the North Burnett, crops have done well with some sorghum now ready to be harvested. Crops have wilted under hot conditions and patchy rain in the South Burnett and many crops of corn were badly affected by heat stress at tasselling and have suffered yield declines. Navy beans were also adversely affected and as a result some crops have been ploughed in and others baled for hay. Dryland cotton has had high insect pressure and irrigated cotton is now being harvested.