CBH Group grain receivals set records as harvest rolls on

Daily receivals just keep going up, as prices spike for high protein wheat.

Rain may have caused some misery among NSW grain growers but in Western Australia, delivery records have been smashed as harvest begins to shift into top gear.

Harvesting is approaching the halfway mark, with 2.86 million tonnes delivered in the past week, pushing total receivals into the CBH Group network to 9.16 million tonnes.

CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said a new record for daily deliveries was set last Friday when growers delivered 533,000 tonnes into the network.

Harvesting lupins at Nabawa, WA, November 2021. Picture: CBH Group

Mr Daw said another record was set at the end of the week, with three consecutive days of half a million tonnes received into CBH’s storages.

He said individual sites continued to break receival records.

“With growers experiencing excellent harvesting conditions, combined with higher than expected yields, we are seeing many sites continuing to break daily receival records, with another 12 this week,” he said.

State deliveries could have been higher except harvesting in the Albany and Esperance zones was interrupted by poor weather.

Good weather forecast for this week across the entire WA grain belt may see another record set.

According to the latest Grain Industry Association of Western Australia forecast, WA is expected to produce a record 20.57 million tonne crop.

Harvesting grain in WA, November 2021. Picture: CBH Group

York grain grower and Grain Growers Limited deputy chairman Rhys Turton said grain was pouring into storages “at the rate of knots”.

“Even with frost damage, it is going to be a cracker of a year,” Mr Turton said.

Yields on his farm were “very good” despite some paddocks suffering from wet weather during the season.

“We were so wet for so long, but we have no complaints,” he said.

Mr Turton was harvesting oats this week, with lupins and wheat yet to go.

He said the wet weather across the country and high yields had seen prices for higher and lower protein wheats diverge substantially.

“The higher protein wheats are going ahead in price and the lower protein wheats are dropping,” he said.

“I think with the quantity of lower protein coming in, the market is backing off, obviously realising there is not a lot of high protein wheat around.

“The spread between APW1 and ASW1 wheat the last time I looked was about $80 a tonne.

“I have never seen a spread that big.

“It’s just the impact of a wheat season with higher yields and low protein.”

CBH Group said the spread between APW and ASW wheat hit $100 a tonne as the trade looked to cover their milling requirements

“APW and AH demand will remain strong on the back of significantly lower than anticipated supplies combine with strong demand from international flour millers,” the company said.

In NSW, just 240,000 tonnes of grain were delivered into the GrainCorp network last week, bringing totals to 2.5 million tonnes, or 16 per cent of the total forecast by ABARES in September.

The deliveries were largely made up of pre-rain harvested grain and on farm storage, with rain holding up harvest across the north of the state, according to a GrainCorp statement.

Harvest totals in Queensland reached 61 per cent of the September forecast, with grain “trickling in” from the Goondiwindi and Darling Downs regions.

Victorian receivals began gathering pace last week, particularly across the central and north east sectors and the Swan Hill region, with “above average” volume and quality, according to GrainCorp.

In South Australia, totals increased by close to 400,000 tonnes last week, according to Viterra, bringing the state up to 14 per cent of its forecast harvest completed.