Record-breaking week for grain handlers as Australian harvest passes two-thirds mark

Australia’s winter crop harvest reaches 65.4 per cent completion as grain handlers smash daily receival records, with CBH breaking its network record twice in two days.

Australia’s winter crop harvest is 65.4 per cent complete, leaving roughly a third of crops still standing.

The largest crop by area is wheat, with about 11.83 million hectares available to harvest after accounting for hay, down from 12.12m ha initially established.

According to satellite imagery from Digital Agricultural Solutions, Victoria’s winter crop harvest was forecast 41.6 per cent complete.

Hay and fodder production had reduced the harvestable area in key regions.

DAS chief executive Anthony Willmott said the data showed approximately 261,700ha in Victoria and 113,600ha in southern NSW had been cut for hay, including areas in the Riverina, Murray, and south-west slopes around Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Leeton, Narrandera, and Albury.

Western Australian growers delivered another 3.9m tonnes into the CBH network in the past week, bringing total receivals to more than 15.2m tonnes.

Farmers look to the sky for fine weather to finish harvest. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The co-operative broke its daily network receival record twice in two days, taking in 678,000 tonnes on December 3 and 680,000 tonnes on December 4, followed by 664,000 tonnes on December 5, the third-best day on record.

Across the network, 18 sites set daily receival records, with some achieving this milestone for a second time this year.

CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said the last fortnight had been huge, and there were nine days that amassed more than half a million tonnes a day, including five days above 600,000 tonnes.

Eastern states tallies through bulk handler GrainCorp have climbed to 7.45m tonnes, with 872,000 tonnes delivered in the past week.

Victorian growers gained momentum after several weeks of wet weather, with wheat, barley and canola receival coming in.

A GrainCorp spokesperson said clearer weather conditions over the coming weeks were expected to support further harvest activity.

In South Australia Bunge reports total receivals of 1,541,008 tonnes for the season so far and of that 674,863 tonnes were delivered in the past week.

Bunge western region operations manager Nick Pratt said Bunge’s Lock site had broken its daily receival record on Wednesday.