Receivals tailed off ahead of Christmas at GrainCorp’s NSW sites, where Wilma Stenberg was one of the team working at Ardlethan which took in more than 220,000t of grain. Photo: GrainCorp

HARVEST deliveries to eastern Australia’s two biggest bulk handlers were nudging 18.5 million tonnes (Mt) early last week as harvest activity winds down.

In its 4 January Harvest Report, GrainCorp said receivals trickled in throughout southern NSW and Victoria over the Christmas-New Year period,  but rain was set to drag out harvest operations well into January.

GrainCorp sites in the Wimmera and Central Victoria saw the most action over the reporting period, with growers expected to deliver in these areas throughout January.

Direct-to-port receivals have continued in Victoria, particularly to Geelong.

Table 1: GrainCorp harvest receivals to 4 January 2021.

Viterra received 299,481t of grain into its South Australian network and two Victorian sites in the fortnight to 3 January to take its total receivals for the current harvest to 5.7Mt.

Viterra Eastern region operations manager Jo Klitscher said while most other sites were slowing down, Frances was the region’s busiest site over the Christmas-New Year fortnight.

“Frances is picking up and is currently our busiest site,” Ms Klitscher said.

Frances became Viterra’s seventh site to break its daily receival record this harvest with 4106t  delivered on 29 December.

This broke Frances’ previous record set during the bumper 2016-17 harvest when 3456t was delivered in a day.

“We installed new concrete walled bunkers at Frances which are double the capacity of the previous bunkers.

“This investment was made to ensure the site could receive the larger yields this year, with our close work with growers determining that the area was expecting an above average crop.”

Viterra Central region operations manager Jack Tansley said the region had up to 12 sites open over the past two weeks, with volumes reducing leading up to Christmas and then further reducing between Christmas and New Year.

“The majority of the receivals were into Port Giles, Gladstone, Roseworthy and Saddleworth,” Mr Tansley said.

“Sites are beginning to close to grower receivals as we prepare stocks for our rail and shipping program.”

Harvest in the Central region was expected to wind up for most growers last week.

Viterra Western region operations manager Nick Pratt said receivals in the region had slowed as the harvest wrapped up.

“Staff are working hard to ensure sites are clean and tidy as they start to close to grower receivals as the harvest ends, while also managing grain in storage and out-turning to accommodate the busy shipping program,” Mr Pratt said.

Table 2: Viterra harvest receivals to 3 January 2021.

Source: GrainCorp, Viterra