GRAIN handling and trading businesses on the Darling Downs of southern Queensland are finding enough input to keep them busy, despite the 12 months behind them being among the driest on record.

Aaron Jones and Ray Pengelly

Some, including Horizon Commodities at Dalby, have even been able to expand.

The business recently took over DMC Grains on the retirement of its former owner Kandi Enterprises.

Horizon Commodities director Ray Pengelly said the business had been busy in its first weeks under new ownership with the drying of high-moisture sorghum.

“We were fortunate to take over just as the summer-crop harvest started,” Mr Pengelly said.

“We all know what a tough season it’s been for sorghum.

“In many instances, the lack of strong root structure saw plants falling over with heavy grain in the head.

“Growers in that situation needed to get the header in and harvest the crop in spite of the high moisture.”

DMC Grains is one of the service providers on the Downs and surrounding districts which has been drying sorghum for a fee to bring it down to the GTA standard specification of 13.5 per cent moisture, and has capacity to dry 45 tonnes per hour.

Horizon Commodities’ grain trader Aaron Jones said DMC Grains would continue to provide grain drying, receival and storage options, and trading ones as well.

Mr Jones has been running the grain-trading side of Horizon Commodities since its inception in 2013.

“We’d hope that if we can show growers extra trading opportunities which could add further value to their grain, growers might consider that too,” Mr Jones said.

The proximity of the DMC Grains site at Black Street in Dalby puts it close to GrainCorp’s Dalby West depot, to the biggest local consumer of sorghum on the Downs, Dalby Biorefinery, and to nearby feedlots and container packers.

DMC Grains has 4100 tonnes of available storage.

The first structures on the DMC Grain site were built in the 1970s, when it was a depot for grain to be transported to the berth at Pinkenba in Brisbane for private export.

The site employs two full-time staff.