The much-anticipated 2020 grain harvest is underway across the district and local receival sites have begun to process numbers of trucks not seen since the bumper 2016 season.
Graincorp’s Coonamble site opened on 22 October but receivals stalled as heavy storms crossed the district on 25 October and headers started and stopped a number of times as showers continued on and off with the latest on Saturday 31 October.
“I estimate Coonamble lost about nine days after that rain on the 25th,” said Area Manager Jaimie Zell.
“But we ran 24 hours yesterday (Monday 2 November) and will continue to operate 24 hours until it’s not needed anymore.”
So far approximately 70,000 tonnes of grain has been delivered into Coonamble, predominantly feed barley and wheat.
“We predicted high protein wheat but it’s even higher protein than expected and that’s a trend right through so far,” Mr Zell said.
“We’ve introduced another grade, APH1 to cater for protein above 14%.”
Gulargambone’s receival site opened on Friday and Mr Zell says “it’s only just getting going” with deliveries expected to ramp up quickly over the coming week.
“Gilgandra is open and taking canola barley pretty strongly – a lot of Coonamble canola growers are delivering to Gilgandra,” he said.
Despite the storms and showers the quality of grain is holding up.
“The quality is fine. There’s not too many issues with downgraded grain, the samples are good and the test weight’s are fine with low screenings,” Mr Zell said.
“Wheat prices firmed up $20 to $30 per tonne in the last month and they’re holding up too.”
Despite facing recruitment challenges due to COVID19 and record low unemployment levels across the west, Graincorp has managed to achieve their target of 115 employees between the Coonamble and Gulargambone sites.
With so little activity at the receival sites over the past few years both new and existing staff have had to be trained in Graincorp’s updated systems, including COVID-related procedures.
“Training has been a big thing as you can imagine,” Mr Zell said.
“We will have a full contingent on board soon with a bit of a buffer in case someone is sick and fatigue management reasons.
“There’s probably a higher percentage of locals than normal, not so much because we couldn’t recruit backpackers but because a lot of local people came to us, especially at Coonamble where there’s a very strong presence of locals,” he said.
Graincorp’s rail program will kick off on Friday 6 November and Coonamble will see it’s first-ever 56 wagon train.
“Usually it’s 40 wagons on that line so hopefully the bigger train brings a few efficiencies and a cheaper freight rate that can be passed back to the growers,” Mr Zell said.
Local growers, contractors and transport operators are doing all they can to get their grain off the paddocks ahead of the next forecast showers on Thursday.