http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/us-australia-floods-idUSTRE81508E20120207

By James Regan

SYDNEY | Tue Feb 7, 2012 1:03am EST

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s projections for a bumper cotton crop remain on track despite a week-long deluge in major growing regions that forced thousands of residents from their homes and left rivers dangerously swollen.

Australia is the world’s third-largest cotton and sugar exporter, fourth-largest wheat exporter and a big supplier of other agricultural and mineral commodities. Heavy rains a year ago contributed to one of Australia’s biggest slumps in GDP in 20 years over the first quarter.

Eastern Australian agricultural belts have been inundated with flood rains for the second year running, with at least two more months of the summer wet season to go.

In some instances, police and emergency workers have been given extra powers, including the use of reasonable force, to make people abandon their homes and farms.

Industry body Cotton Australia said it still expected a record national cotton harvest of 5 million bales this year, far outpacing last year’s record 4 million bales.

“There will be damage, but cotton crops are fairly resistant and we’re still expecting around 5 million bales,” the group’s national director of communications, David Bone, said.

He added that it was too early to fully assess any damage to cotton crops due to continued flooding in some areas and it would take about a week from when rains fully subside before a thorough measure of the crop could be conducted.

In Australia, one bale equals 500 pounds. Bale weights vary in other cotton-producing countries due to differing moisture content when cotton is compressed.

New York cotton futures settled lower in the last session, awaiting release of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s monthly supply/demand report on Thursday.

Benchmark March cotton on ICE Futures U.S. slipped 0.03 cent to finish at 96.31 cents per lb.

RIVER PEAKING

Queensland’s Balonne River is expected to peak later on Tuesday at around 14 metres (46 feet), which remains just below the highest of the levees protecting the cotton-growing town of St George, according to weather forecasters.

St. George was also hit in 2011, when flash floods in the region killed about 35 people, swamped 30,000 houses, and wiped out roads, bridges and rail lines.

Farm investment group PrimeAG Australia said due to the rains, it now held ample water supply for planned fiscal 2013 irrigated crops at most of its locations, along with sufficient water to irrigate some of its projected fiscal 2014 crops.

“Our dryland cotton has benefited from the recent rain and has the potential to perform well against forecast production,” Chief Executive Peter Corish said.

“We would now like to see a period of sunny, hot weather as harvest approaches.”

Australia’s cotton farmers plant from late September to early November and usually finish harvesting at the end of June.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/us-australia-floods-idUSTRE81508E20120207