WA grain harvest climbs to more than 8.9 million tonnes: CBH

WA growers delivered 1,702,900 tonnes of grain to CBH receival bins in the seven days to November 25, bringing the season total to more than 8.9 million tonnes. Record receivals on November 18, with 620,000 tonnes delivered across the network, saw individual site records broken at eight CBH receival points: Gairdner, Nyabing, Mt Madden, Perenjori, Merredin, York, Wickepin and Corrigin. “This is a shared success and one which we can all be proud of as a collective WA grain industry,” CBH Group chief operations officer Mick Daw said. “From the farming operations that have grown the crop, the growers and contractors harvesting and safely delivering it, and the CBH frontline employees who are efficiently receiving and storing it in the network.” Mr Daw said the amount of grain received would fill the equivalent of 320 Olympic sized swimming pools. “If this was stored in one CBH open bulkhead, it would be 4.5km long,” he said. “If you were to line enough trucks up end to end to hold this amount of grain, you would need 12,400 50-tonne trucks and it would stretch for 450km — the distance from Perth to Albany.” Forecast rain which swept across all zones from last Tuesday brought harvest to a halt for nearly all growers, with CBH closing sites and services across the network. Barley and canola have been the main commodities received in the Albany zone, with some wheat also received across all areas of the zone. In the Esperance zone all commodities are being received, with growers nearing the completion of their canola programs; however, substantial hectares of barley and wheat still remain to be harvested. In the Geraldton zone, heavy rainfall hit on Tuesday, November 19, continuing into Wednesday, with some areas getting more than 50mm. The wet weather will likely delay most growers in the zone and CBH doesn’t expect to start seeing “decent” tonnages coming in until early this week. All commodities in the Geraldton zone are still open for receivals; however, barley and canola have dropped off with wheat making up most of the tonnes delivered in the last seven days. All services are available in the zone but not at every receival site. Growers are encouraged to check the CDF app before heading to site. Weather has all but stopped harvest across the Kwinana North zone since Tuesday, November 19. Canola receivals have slowed and passed CBH estimates for the zone, with wheat now the major commodity being delivered. In the Kwinana South zone, most growers switched to wheat prior to last week’s rain event. However, CBH has only received half of its canola and barley harvest estimates, indicating growers have more to progress with these programs. All major sites and service in the zone are now open and receiving all commodities.