Full steam ahead as grain pours in

The Esperance harvest is already breaking records after Co-operative Bulk Handling received 200,000 tonnes of grain for the zone last week.

In one of the earliest starts to harvest, zone manager Mick Daw said daily records had been broken at Grass Patch and in Esperance, receiving 10,451t and 26,242t, respectively.

"We broke receival records at both Esperance and Grass Patch on Thursday, which is a good indication of the amount of grain being harvested," Mr Daw said.

"All sites are now open and we are opening the community sample huts over the next few days."

Mr Daw said most Lakes region sites began taking grain last week, accepting barley and canola, while several growers moved on to wheat the Esperance part of the zone.

"Barley and wheat yields are still exceptional, with many growers averaging around four tonnes per hectare," he said.

Some much needed fine weather helped kick the harvest into top gear, with grain trucks pouring into Esperance and farmers stripping crops off with up to five harvesters working the same paddock.

Grass Patch farmer Scott Wandel had five machines harvesting his first wheat crop of the season on Wednesday last week.

Mr Wandel said he was about halfway through his 10,000ha program, comprising wheat, barley, peas and canola and needed about three weeks of sunshine to finish.

He said his barley had averaged about 4t/ha and he was confident his wheat crops could go close to that mark.

"We just started harvesting wheat," Mr Wandel said. "We are pretty happy but don't know what it is yielding yet."

But he would be disappointed if the average sank to less than the 3.5t/ha level.

Mr Wandel said it was shaping up to be the best harvest he had had in the past five years, and it could even exceed the most recent record.

He said rain early last week had slowed him down, but a few dry days had seen it hit top gear towards the middle of last week.

"We are pretty happy with how it's going," Mr Wandel said.

He said his five headers were harvesting between 350ha and 400ha a day, which was a bit slower than previous years due to the density of the crops.

Mr Wandel is using expandable plastic bags for additional storage that can contain up to 300t grain.

The bags are being used throughout the region to assist with additional storage capacity to enable farmers to keep harvesting while trucks work around the clock delivering grain to CBH bins.

Esperance zone is leading the State in receivals, currently at 334,883t, followed by Geraldton at 266,695t, Kwinana at 176,648t and Albany at 26,669t.

The estimate for the Esperance crop size remains at 2.5 million tonnes, but is set to be revised upwards in the next few weeks.

Growers' co-operative CBH received the largest ever amount of grain for October this year, with 779,952t delivered across the State.

CBH operations general manager David Capper said while last month's receivals began very slowly, October finished with a bang.

"The two closest years were 622,000 and 278,000 respectively," he said.

"Given receivals were well behind 2012-13 levels for most of the month, it is quite remarkable how quickly it ramped up in the last week."

CBH marketing and trading general manger Jason Craig said growers had not been aggressive sellers of wheat over the past week as prices stayed less than $300/t for APW.

"Growers are more likely to wait until they have a better understanding of quality," he said.

"There has been some interest from growers interested in both barley and canola, with harvest now well under way.

"Internationally, the market is waiting to see the quality of the Australian crops as harvest moves into full swing during November."

Mr Craig said most end users had stock for the first few months of 2014 and would likely look to accumulate quantities amid harvest.