CBH Harvest Report - 50 percent of the WA Crop off

By: "Farm Tender" News
Cattle News
Dec 02, 2018
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OPERATIONS UPDATE - Week ending the 30th November, 2018

At the end of this week CBH expects to be closing in on 50 per cent of our estimated tonnes for 2018, and is currently sitting at around 7.2 million tonnes received. Shipping has begun in most zones, and road and rail transport from country sites in Geraldton and Albany zone are expected to increase soon.

“This week the separation between our northern and southern zones this harvest has become more pronounced with cool weather slowing progress in Albany and Esperance zones, however towards the end of the week receivals in all zones has ramped up,” said General Manager, Operations, David Capper.

“Given these delays we expect to be busy over Christmas and into the new year, with a late finish to harvest forecast,” said Mr Capper.

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ALBANY

Albany zone progress is still slow due to wet weather, with only 244,000 tonnes received this week, taking the total to over 600,000 tonnes. This compared to 2017, when 1.3 million tonnes had been received at his time. Grain that has been received is a large portion of barley, with some canola, and small loads of wheat starting to appear to the north of the zone.

“Even though we have had small tonnages received, quality continues to be good with 45 per cent of barley making malt grades. The impact of recent rain on wheat quality is unknown at this stage but we will begin stack monitoring to gauge quality as wheat receivals increase in the coming weeks,” said Albany Zone Manager, Greg Thornton

“Given the delayed start to harvest, we will be accumulating grain by both rail and road transport over the next few weeks from country receival points to meet shipping demands.”

“We will ensure that we minimise the impact to receivals of these activities, and with improved harvesting conditions over the next week we expect receivals to ramp up across the zone,” said Mr Thornton.

ESPERANCE

The Esperance zone is still tracking slowly this harvest with approximately 38 per cent of its estimated receivals being complete to date. Receivals have been made up of mostly barley and canola with a small amount of wheat, and some lupins and field peas. Poor weather once again slowed deliveries this week.

“I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but rain late last week slowed things up across the zone, with some isolated areas affected by hail during the same weather event.

“Weather since the weekend has been mild and cool which has continued to keep things damp. Hopefully we can get a week of good weather and start to get some reasonable tonnes delivered,” said Esperance Zone Manager, Mick Daw.

GERALDTON

Geraldton zone has had its busiest week with over half a million tonnes received, taking the total to more than two million for the year to date. This makes up more than 85 per cent of expected receivals for the year and is comprised of a large portion of wheat, and smaller amounts of barley, canola and lupins. Some services have closed at some sites this week, reaching capacity.

“We have started out heavy shipping which has been a welcome relief also allowing rail and road to start up at major receival points.”

“We are starting to see a small number of growers in the north start to finish their harvest program but on the whole I think it’s still going to be very busy for some time,” said Geraldton Zone Manager, Duncan Gray.

KWINANA

The Kwinana zone has had its best receival week for this harvest with almost 1.3 million tonnes coming in, bringing the years total to 3.6 million tonnes. This is close to 50 per cent of the estimate for this year’s harvest.

“We have had many sites breaking their daily tonnage records this week and as more growers get onto wheat I think we will see more records broken, as wheat yields are much better than we expected,” said Kwinana Assistant Zone Manager, Allan Walker.

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Sites which broke daily receival records this week include; Cadoux, Dowerin New, Koorda, Beacon, Wyalkatchem, Kondinin 2, Merredin, Bodallin, Narembeen and Watheroo.

MARKET UPDATE

Barley

The barley market was certainly softer this week as the trade covered in its shorts and the market is now looking for fresh demand as interest from China dried up as a result of the China anti-dumping announcement. Market for feed barley drifted lower by A$6-8 per tonne to A$302 - 304 per tonne free in store (FIS). Malting market also drifted lower with La Trobe malt barley down A$6-8 per tonne to the mid A$340’s per tonne free in store (FIS). Grower selling for feed has been relatively firm over the past week as growers look to offload some of the uncontracted tonnage. Barley crop is now close to 3 million tonnes delivered which is approximately 70 per cent of the estimate.

Canola

Canola market has remained firm with good interest both from growers and the European market. European market continues to look to cover for January onwards with earlier commitments already complete. The harvest for canola is certainly well through with estimates 70-75 per cent complete and a large portion of this already sold. Prices this week were around the A$570 per tonne free in store (FIS) and have remained relatively stable all week.

Wheat

Wheat market jumped early in the week as the trade was looking for some grower liquidity. A slow harvest has seen growers reluctant to contract additional tonnages and have been waiting to see how the harvest goes. However, by mid-week we did see some good liquidity from growers resulting in the market backing of A$5-7 per tonnes to the mid $340’s per tonne free in store. As the harvest progresses it is clear protein is down with a larger proportion of ASW now being seen. This is seeing good demand for higher protein from the trade as the market. The wheat harvest is approximately 30 per cent complete and well behind previous seasons.

https://www.cbh.com.au/