Australia’s biggest grain handler CBH Group upgrades three receival sites

CBH is putting the finishing touches on major upgrades to three of its key receival sites, with plans to unveil the projects to growers next week. The grain giant plans to take local growers for a tour of its Moora bin on Tuesday, September 22, and Watheroo and Konnongorring the next day. The tours will be held after the co-operative’s annual harvest meetings at each town. The three sites were three of six sites cherry-picked by CBH — Australia’s largest grain handler — for upgrades earlier this year. CBH chief executive Jimmy Wilson announced in April that works at the co-operative’s Hyden, Brookton and Dale sites would be postponed until next year, which he attributed to uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. CBH chief project delivery officer Pieter Vermeulen said the Moora, Konnongorring and Watheroo upgrades were in their final stages, and had not experienced any delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. He said the works were much-needed because growers in CBH’s areas four and five — two of the 19 areas it splits the State into to manage its receival sites — were producing more grain. The areas stretch from Dandaragan in the west to Ballidu in the east, and from Wubin in the north to Regans Ford in the south. “While production has grown significantly in areas four and five over the past decade, investment in these areas has not kept pace,” Mr Vermeulen said. “Since identifying this gap, proactive forward planning has been under way to ensure we can expand our services in these areas. “Increased storage capacity and throughput improvements at Moora, Watheroo and Konnongorring will enable us to provide the required services closer to growers and improve their paddock to paddock turnaround times.” Moora has received the biggest upgrade this year, with 132,000 tonnes of additional permanent storage in the form of four open bulkheads — two of which were converted from existing temporary storage constructed ahead of the 2018-19 harvest. Mr Vermeulen said the average crop size in areas four and five was moving in an “upwards trajectory” and the five-year receival average for Moora was now more than 340,000 tonnes. “It’s expected this extra storage will be utilised over ongoing harvests, making its conversion from temporary to permanent storage a priority,” he said. Moora’s two new bulkheads will be serviced by a 500-tonne per hour conveyor loading system, which has replaced drive over grids previously servicing the emergency storage in a bid to help improve site cycle times for growers. A second weighbridge has also been installed to improve traffic flow and assist in reducing site cycle times. At Konnongorring, 84,000 tonnes of additional permanent storage has been added by converting existing temporary storage to three open bulkheads. The new bulkheads will be serviced by a 500-tonne per hour conveyor loading system and a 500-tonne per hour drive over grid. A new bypass road has also been built to address a bottleneck at the site and improve site cycle times. At Watheroo, CBH has added 70,000 tonnes of new permanent storage by converting temporary storage to two open bulkheads. The two new bulkheads will be serviced by a 500-tonne per hour conveyor loading system, and a new elevator pit has also been installed. Growers on the local tours will be joined by CBH directors and some of the co-operative’s senior management team. To register for the tours, contact CBH.