DROUGHT has crunched Queensland wheat growers, with about half the 1 million ha winter crop not planted.

About 60 per cent of central Queensland has been sown but less than half the Darling Downs – and the planting window has all but closed.

It is expected to have a substantial impact on regional towns, with the critically important $300 million crop potentially halved.

For the seven months to June, rainfall in northeast NSW, southeast Queensland and west of the Great Dividing Range was in the lowest 5 per cent to 10 per cent on record.

Soil moisture, which determines planting, is below average from central Queensland to southern NSW.

Millmerran grain grower Charlie Uebergang has been unable to plant.

“I’ve got nothing bar a few acres of oats for cattle,’’ he said. “If we could get rain soon, I might plant but the optimum time has gone anyway.’’

Mr Uebergang has had no rain for the past two winters and none in summer until a heavy 290mm burst in October. He said it had been a tough time although he rated the millennium drought worse.

Agforce spokesman and Millmerran grower Kent Wright said he had planted only 60ha of chickpeas when he had proposed to sow more than 800ha of winter wheat.

“Less than 10 per cent of our district has been planted,’’ Mr Wright said. “If we get some rain, people will try to plant late but the yield will be reduced by a big margin.

“The chickpeas are growing but every day without rain means the yield is going down. It’s pretty grim.’’

Agriculture Minister John McVeigh said the last significant rain had been in March.

“We are now well past the optimal planting time and follow up rain is badly needed,” he said.

In further bad news for rural industries, research by Princeton University suggests southern Australia is drying out because of changes to the concentration of greenhouse gases and ozone.

It predicts that southern Australia could lose 40 per cent of its rainfall by the end of the 21st century.

The Australian National University’s Nerilie Abram said climate belts had shifted south. “This research paints a very worrying picture,’’ Dr Abram said.