Harvest 2023: Positive signs for the current crop harvest

Harvest has kicked off in northern NSW, with canola, wheat and barley starting to flow into receival depots. See some of the tonnages that have been delivered so far.

More than 100,000 tonnes of grain has flowed into receival depots in northern NSW with harvest 2023 shaping up to be better than anticipated.

GrainCorp regional operations manager for northern NSW Luke Vanderwerf said most of the grain had come from growers in the Moree, Dubbo and Narrabri regions.

“Canola is the main commodity we’ve received, but barley and wheat have also started coming through the gates this week,” Mr Vanderwerf said.

“Overall, the quality across all commodities has been excellent.”

On the pricing front there are also positive signs with wheat trending at $407 a tonne compared to $422 last week; canola is making around $682 a tonne, down from $707 last week; and lentils are making $970 a tonne.

Ian Gourley, who farms near Narrabri, was harvesting wheat on Monday and said it was performing and yielding as he had expected.

“We are trying a bit of wheat today, and we have been fortunate with the season,” he said.

Although it was dry, his property received a few storms to provide handy in-crop rainfall.

He expected the wheat to yield 3.5 tonnes a hectare, and the better crops might be as much as 4 tonnes per hectare.

“The worst crops will be around 2 tonnes per hectare,” he said.

Mr Gourley said he tried to harvest some canola, but it was too green.

At Koorawatha in the south west slopes of NSW, Ian McColl estimated it was about a month before the first header would start on wheat or canola at his property.

“It really all depends on the weather in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

“In our area, it has cooled off a bit, and that is buying us time. The canola will do well if we get one more rain event.”

Agronomist Frank McRae of DLF Seeds at Orange. Picture: Nikki Reynolds

DLF Seeds agronomist at Orange in the NSW Central West Frank McRae said there were canola crops at Temora that were close to being ready for windrowing.

“Those crops were doing really well, and there’s a little bit of hay being cut,” he said.

However, he said harvest was still a way off at Orange.

Mr McRae said he had heard reports of harvest ticking along well at Warialda, and there had been some good yields of 5 tonnes per hectare for wheat.

Farmer Dan Fox with his dog Batman on his farm at Marrar in southern NSW. Picture: Jonathan Ng

At Marrar in southern NSW, Dan Fox said he had started windrowing canola.

“We can expect to harvest (canola) in seven days,” Mr Fox said, with the crop looking great.

“We are about a month off harvesting wheat in this area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Viterra has reported that growers had delivered around 67,000 tonnes of grain into its receival depots this month to start the 2023 harvest.

The first sites to open for Viterra this harvest were in Western Australia.

There were good reports from Viterra of lentils coming in as an early harvested crop, along with canola and some barley.