WA harvest: Rain slows down CBH grain reveivals

Rain has caused some grain receivals in Western Australia to come to a halt.

Rain distruptions: Wet weather has been creating challenging conditions for growers, CBH says. : PICTURE: ZOE PHILLIPS

RAIN is slowing down harvest deliveries in Western Australia, and creating challenging conditions for grain growers.

Last week’s CBH harvest report showed widespread rainfall caused the slowing of receivals at most sites, with 881,900 tonnes received in total for the week ending ­November 6.

Total harvest deliveries to CBH are now at 1.9 million tonnes.

CBH chief operations officer Ben Macnamara said wet weather was halting harvest for growers.

“Wet weather has been creating challenging conditions for growers, many of whom were just starting to ramp up their harvest programs,” he said.

“Last year we experienced a relatively dry, uninterrupted harvest which allowed us to receive the Western Australian crop in a short amount of time.

“This year, we’ve already seen two rain events halt activity.”

Mr Macnamara said CBH was “closely monitoring” the impact of the wet conditions to ensure the appropriate services would be available to affected growers.

According to CBH, Geraldton zone received heavy rainfall, with a few receivals coming through since then.

​Kwinana north and south zones both had widespread rain earlier last week, but began receiving grain later in the week again.

For the Albany zone, CBH said rain throughout the zone stopped harvest early in the week, with growers returning to harvest operations over the past couple of days.

The zone has received 140,000 tonnes so far, with 88,500 tonnes delivered over the past week, CBH said.

Rain in the Esperance zone last Monday “significantly slowed” deliveries after high receivals in the days prior, CBH said, with most sites in the zone made up of mostly barley and canola.

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