WA’s bin bursting grain harvest ramps up as receival site records tumble across the Mid West & Esperance

Harvest records continue to tumble just weeks into the season as farmers crank up their headers, setting the pace for what is looking increasingly likely to be a record crop. CBH Group’s Chadwick and Munglinup sites in the Esperance Port Zone, and its Mingenew, Mullewa and Narngulu sites in the Geraldton Port Zone all notched up daily receival records during the past week as farmers embrace perfect harvesting conditions. Record throughput was been achieved at the Eradu community sample hut, with 5848 tonnes recorded so far this harvest. CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said momentum was building on the back of warmer, drier weather, with farmers particularly focused on harvesting and delivering canola and barley. “Larger sites in the CBH network are now operating on extended hours to accommodate increased activity,” Mr Daw said. “Pleasingly, the warmer weather has meant the majority of growers have been able to get into their harvesting programs. “As harvest gathers pace, it’s important that we all continue working together, remain patient, and keep up the comms so that we can get the crop in as safely and efficiently as possible.” Two sites in the Geraldton Port Zone smashed their daily receival totals on November 10, when 19,695 tonnes was delivered at Mingenew and 14,904 tonnes at Narngulu. A third Mid West site, at Mullewa, broke its daily total on November 15 when 7101 tonnes were delivered. Meanwhile, Esperance Port Zone records tumbled at Chadwick on November 12, when 37,472 tonnes was delivered in one day, and Munglinup when 12,109 tonnes was delivered on November 14. CBH Group’s McLevie site, just 3km north of Dalwallinu, was the first site to smash a daily receival record this harvest when more than 10,000 tonnes of grain was delivered on Friday, October 31. It broke the prior McLevie daily receival record of 9,824 tonnes set on December 12 last year. The Esperance and Geraldton Port Zones, and the Kwinana North Zone all cracked the one million tonne mark earlier this week — meaning farmers have delivered more than one million tonnes of grain to CBH sites across those areas. Mullewa farmer Rod Messina said it had been a “great“ season for farmers in the Mid West, and from all reports grain was flowing nicely into headers and into the local bin, which has a storage capacity of 184,800 tonnes He delivers direct from his farm, west of Mullewa, to the Geraldton Port as a way to reduce his freight rate paid to CBH. “It was a very good season, with many farmers discovering their best wheat and canola yields ever,” he said. “We kicked off on October 27, which is about 10 days late... we just wanted to give to crop some time to finish. “It’s been a bit of an interrupted harvest overall, with rain, but we should move from wheat to canola in the next two weeks.” CBH received its the first delivery for the 2025-26 season at its Chadwick site on October 12. The 55 tonne delivery of feed barley was delivered on behalf of Hill Plains — a fully-crop focused operation near Beaumont owned by long-standing farmer Tom Brow. The daily receival records set the scene for what many in WA’s grains industry are expecting to be a record crop, despite official estimates by the Grain Industry Association of WA sitting at 25.4Mt this week and the prior record 26Mt in 2022. GIWA’s next harvest update is expected to be released on November 20.