RECORD SET: CBH smashes daily grain receival total, one year to the day since the prior record was set

WA’s slow-starting bumper grain harvest has kicked into high gear with CBH Group smashing its daily grain receival total — one year to the day since the prior record was set.

Both this year and last year’s records were set on December 1, with the new record of 587, 974 tonnes marginally surpassing the previous record of 587, 738 tonnes.

The total is the amount of delivered in one day across CBH’s expansive network of more than 100 upcountry sites.

Sunny skies and warm weather across the South West Land Division this week have farmers steaming through paddocks after wet weather dampened initial efforts, with many forced to pull up stumps in November because crops were too damp.

It is expected to be the State’s second-biggest harvest, with the latest industry projections sitting at about 23.9Mt — just shy of last year’s record 24.3Mt harvest — after a year of average but well-timed rain coupled with good farming techniques.

Nearly 7Mt had been delivered to CBH by Monday, November 28, with sites averaging 425,000t per day and many already notching up daily records.

In a post to Facebook on December 2, the grain handler and marketer thanked the growers, employees, contractors and others involved, and wished “everyone a safe harvest”.

Incredible drone photographs by Paul Hogger and posted to CBH’s Facebook page on December 2 showed the sheer volume of grain in the cooperative’s Carnamah receival site, 280km north of Perth.

The daily receival record comes less than a month after CBH also broke its monthly shipping record, exporting 1.18 million tonnes in October — 10 per cent up on the prior record set in 2012.

The Esperance, Geraldton, and Kwinana Port Terminals all broke previous October port records, by 48 per cent, 10 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

Domestic market outturns also broke their October record, making it their seventh consecutive monthly record, moving over 1.1 million tonnes from the system over the last 12 months.

CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said the shipping record was a testament to the hard work of the CBH team, transporters, contractors and growers.

CBH’s carry over position from the 2021-22 harvest was sitting at 2.8 million tonnes at the start of October, well down on initial predictions of about 4Mt and abating some farmers’ fears it would be as high as 6Mt.