WA’s daily grain receival record topples as harvest ramps up

WA grain farmers have smashed a record set two years ago and delivered their biggest tonnage of crop ever recorded in a single day, tipping a whopping 528,678 into 112 CBH bins on Monday. The record — announced by CBH at 12.30pm on Tuesday — exceeded the previous record set on December 3, 2018, when 525,228 tonnes of grain was received in 134 CBH sites in one day. Bluebird skies and warm weather had growers rushing into paddocks this week after sporadic rainfall in November. Nearly 5 million tonnes of grain was in CBH bins by the end of last week, more than a third of WA’s predicted 13.89 million tonne crop. CBH chief operations officer Ben Macnamara, pictured, said the record was a significant achievement for both growers and the CBH team, with staff anticipating harvest to increase this week as the weather became warmer. “After a frustrating start to the harvest period, we were really pleased to see the largest volume of grain ever delivered into the network in one day achieved on Monday,” he said. “It’s great to see our focus on network expansion, boosting on-site efficiencies and reducing site cycle times come into effect and support growers as they work to catch-up on their harvest programs after several weather interruptions. “It’s a reflection of the increasing pace of our growers’ harvest programs due to larger equipment, and a boost in their yields as a result of innovative farming practices in what has been a tough season.” There were 4.82 million tonnes of grain in the bin last Friday, with CBH’s Kwinana North Zone leading the charge with 1.32m tonnes, followed by Geraldton Port Zone with 1.21m tonnes, while deliveries at the Esperance Port Zone, Kwinana South, and Albany Port Zone were all below 1m tonnes. It has been a slower start to harvest for growers in the Kwinana South Zone, where 789,000 tonnes had been delivered by Friday, and in the Albany Port Zone, with 560,000 tonnes last Friday. Yuna farmer and Elders agronomist Belinda Eastough said it had been a slow start to harvest but her client growers were “pleasantly surprised” by yields. She said some farmers in her area had been reaching 3t/ha for wheat in paddocks deep ripped earlier in the year. “I have clients that are close to finishing, and there are clients that have done about a third of their programs, just depending on when they started,” Ms Eastough said. “Some growers north-east of Geraldton, in the lower rainfall areas, got warmer weather and had less rain ... so they got going faster and finishing harvest early.” Ms Eastough said crops had shown “extremely good water-use efficiency” in the Geraldton Port Zone, with up to 20kg of grain per millimetre of growing-season rainfall. “We didn’t have a lot of rain but certainly that August rain and a cool finish has been lucrative,” she said. “Some of the canola paddocks that have been ameliorated and limed are exceptional ... everyone is really blown away.” Ogilvie farmer Ben Cripps was about halfway through his 4300ha cropping program, 40km north of Northampton, this week, and said things were “ticking along pretty well”. “The crops are looking good, and we have not had any quality issues with all that rain,” he said. Esperance Port Zone manager Mick Daws said receivals were increasing as conditions improved.