Harvest 2023 will be remembered for an early finish

Barley and canola quality, as well as lentil returns, are some of this year’s harvest highlights in a season which finished up to a month earlier than expected for some.

The 2023 harvest won’t be remembered as a bin buster, but there were several milestones.

Harvest was completed up to a month earlier than anticipated, with many farmers putting the header back in the shed in November.

This starkly contrasted to the season before, with some people still stripping crops in February.

GrainCorp NSW regional operations manager Warwick Smith said the network had received more than six million tonnes of grain.

“We also broke a record in our Victoria network (last Wednesday) for the most grain received in a day, of 229,000 tonnes,” Mr Smith said.

“The overall quality across all commodities has been excellent, with barley and canola deliveries performing particularly well.”

Harvest has finished early for many grain growers. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Grain Producers Australia southern director Andrew Weidemann said a highlight for 2023 was lentil prices tracking towards $1000 a tonne. The current price delivered for nugget lentils is $950 a tonne.

“The lows for the year have been in canola pricing, and protein hasn’t been as high in wheat as many people hoped,” Mr Weidemann said.

Canola is currently making $623 delivered to port.

“There’s positivity about next year,” he said.

The early harvest this year and rainfall arriving in many parts, despite forecasts of El Nino, were helping to instil confidence.

Australian Oilseeds Federation chief executive officer Nick Goddard said there was sufficient subsoil moisture to produce a good crop.

Canola crops had yielded as much as three tonnes a hectare with typical ranges of 1.5-2.5 tonnes/ha.

Mr Goddard said that once all canola was delivered, it was anticipated Victoria would contribute about 1.3 million tonnes and NSW was set to deliver a similar figure. However, Western Australia was uncertain due to a tough finish to the year. Early estimates put that state at 2.2 million tonnes.

“We are looking at five million tonnes from all states,” he said.

This compares to a bumper year last season, with Australian growers delivering a record eight million tonnes of canola.