WA's record harvest: Grain growers crack ‘magic’ 20 million tonne harvest total for first time in history

It is the magic number some thought would never be possible, but WA farmers have officially harvested 20 million tonnes of grain. Australia’s biggest bulk grain handler, CBH Group, announced the milestone this morning as the State’s 3900 grain farmers sprinted past the 16.6mt prior record set in 2016-17 and continue to steamroll towards the predicted 22.1 million tonnes total. The figure included 4.87mt in CBH’s Kwinana North Zone, 3.99mt in the Kwinana South Zone, 3.88mt in the Albany Port Zone, 3.08mt in the Geraldton Port Zone and 3.44mt in the Esperance Port Zone. WA already smashed the nation’s annual harvest record for any state earlier this month, snatching the title from New South Wales farmers a who last year harvested 17.8 million tonnes. The bountiful WA harvest comes on the back of the wettest start to the growing season in decades — if not ever— for many growers, who planted a record 9m hectares to take advantage of the soil moisture after three years of drought across much of the State. Record grain prices — with canola peaking at more than $1000/t — also influenced the record cropping area. Several CBH grain receival sites have broken daily delivery records, with farmers racing against the clock to get grain into local bins before they are filled to the brim and shut down. A whopping 48 sites have smashed their previous harvest total tonnage, while 39 sites have beaten their previous daily tonnage. Standout harvest records included Wheatbelt sites Cunderdin, which surpassed its previous daily harvest total record by 100,000 tonnes to receive 274,317 tonnes, and Kellerberrin, which beat its previous daily record by 121,000 tonnes to total 404,668 tonnes. The Esperance Port also smashed its previous daily delivery total by 125,000 tonnes to total 1.34 million tonnes. CBH has recorded 11 days with more than 500,000 tonnes of grain delivered, including on December 1 when the bulk handler received a whopping and record-breaking daily total of 586, 621. CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw urged growers to be patient earlier this month, saying the co-operative was doing absolutely everything it could to put more capacity on and ease pressure. That included opening some old network sites and building emergency storage.