More than 50,000t of wheat is on its way from GrainCorp’s Port Kembla terminal to the Middle East to mark the facility’s first new-crop shipment. Photo: NSW Ports

DELIVERIES from the current harvest to eastern Australia’s two biggest bulk handlers have passed 16.5 million tonnes (Mt), according to the latest weekly harvest reports from GrainCorp and Viterra.

In its summary of harvest activity to yesterday, GrainCorp said the Queensland winter-crop  harvest was now mostly complete, and growers were now turning their attention to summer-crop planting.

Within the GrainCorp network, Victoria and southern New South Wales are now the primary areas of harvest activity, with some sites taking record receivals as total intake passes 11.5Mt.

Outturn of grain from southern NSW has started, with the first new-crop shipment of wheat leaving Port Kembla on the weekend.

Table 1: GrainCorp harvest receivals to 14 December 2020.

In South Australia, the Viterra network received most of its grain from Wednesday onward, and two daily receival records were broken in the eastern region as the state total nudges 5Mt.

“Our Bordertown site became the sixth site in our network to break its daily receival record this harvest, when it received 2,702 tonnes on Thursday,” Viterra Eastern region operations manager Jo Klitscher said.

“The staff at site have been doing a great job receiving strong volumes of faba beans which is what tipped receivals over the line and broke the record.

“We’ve now opened up additional storage with increased elevation capacity to get growers’ faba bean deliveries unloaded more quickly.”

The second record broken in the Eastern region was at Monarto South site, which has received more grain this harvest than in any other.

“The new record ticked over on Sunday, beating the previous record set during the bumper 2016-17 harvest,” Ms Klitscher said, adding that new side-cell outloaders have helped to improve grain outturns from the silos.

“These have been very well received by growers and carriers, and our employees, as they make outturns faster and also allow for receivals to continue while outturning.”

Viterra Western region operations manager Nick Pratt said the majority of its tonnage to come in over the week to Sunday was delivered to sites on the lower Eyre Peninsula.

“The majority of deliveries last week were into our Cummins, Tumby Bay and Port Lincoln sites, as harvesting slows in the north of the region,” Mr Pratt said.

“Most growers still harvesting are predicting another week or two of activity, which will be a slightly earlier finish than an average year.”

Viterra Central region operations manager Jack Tansley said faba bean deliveries increased significantly into Gladstone and Balaklavaas growers moved on to those crops across the region.

“Our busiest sites for the week were Port Giles, Gladstone and Roseworthy, while receivals into our Ardrossan, Wallaroo, Bowmans, Snowtown and Crystal Brook sites have slowed as some areas start to wind down.”

Table 2: Viterra harvest receivals to 13 December 2020.

Source: GrainCorp, Viterra