Grain piling up in the paddock as demand for trucks and drivers soars during WA’s record grain harvest

A shortage of truck drivers amid a bumper WA grain harvest has prompted a well-known Mid West farmer to take the unusual step of building a huge mountain of wheat — worth millions of dollars — on his own property. Rod Messina, who farms at Mullewa, 450km north of Perth, said during a normal harvest seven triple-trailer trucks were contracted to cart his grain 75km to his local CBH receival bin. But while his harvest this year is about 50 per cent bigger than average thanks to an excellent season he has only been able to find three contract truckies. Mr Messina said there was huge demand across the Wheatbelt for truck and drivers, with other farmers also needing extra transport for their own big harvests. Not wanting to slow the harvest while he waits for trucks to catch up with the workload, he has kept his four headers rolling and instead piled up about 5000t of wheat — worth more than $2m at current high prices — in a paddock. A further 2000t is expected to be added to the pile and will only be carted to the bins when there is spare trucking capacity after harvest. “It’s not quite the norm, but we can’t stop those headers,” Mr Messina said. The three trucks Mr Messina can currently access continue to take grain direct from the paddock to the CBH site but cannot keep up the extra tonnes being added to the pile. Mr Messina — who has been farming for 24 years — said he has enjoyed his best harvest yet, at a time when grain prices are surging. Across WA, the grain harvest is expected to reach a whopping 21 million tonnes worth about $8 billion. The last WA production record of 18.1mt was achieved in 2016-17. The five year average is 15.64mt. CBH has reported there was already 12mt of grain in the bins as of Monday morning. CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said unprecedented volumes had placed significant pressure on everyone involved with harvest including growers, their families, employees, transporters and CBH staff. Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny said the extreme measures being taken by some farmers was a reflection of the chronic shortage of truck drivers across the State.