HEADERS are rolling, particularly in the northern Wheatbelt, with the 2018-19 harvest well underway in three of the four port zones despite rain interruptions in the past week.
At the time Farm Weekly went to press 6100 tonnes had already been delivered to CBH Group receival sites within the Geraldton zone following the first delivery to the Geraldton Port Terminal last week.
A shy farmer who did not want to be identified, claimed the first 2018-19 delivery to CBH with 36 tonnes of canola dropped through the grid at the port terminal on Tuesday afternoon last week.
Most of the grain delivered in the Geraldton zone so far has been barley with some wheat and canola, a CBH spokeswoman said.
“Geraldton received some minor rainfall late last week which has slowed the zone down, but a better weather forecast for this week will see things moving again,” she said.
In that zone CBH has its Moonyoonooka, Binnu, Yuna, Mingenew, Canna, Mullewa and Northampton sites open for delivery, as well as the port terminal.
In the Esperance zone more than 810 tonnes of canola was delivered to the Chadwick site in north Esperance over the past week.
CBH said the up-country bins in the Esperance zone are expected to open this week for receivals.
In the Kwinana zone harvest was kicked off with 31t of feed barley delivered at the Koorda receival site last Thursday.
That was the only delivery in the zone and the Koorda bin was the only one operating as Farm Weekly went to press, but deliveries of canola were anticipated towards the end of this week.
CBH is looking at opening the Avon site near Northam, the Merredin site and the Metro Grain Centre in Forrestfield for Kwinana zone harvest deliveries this week.
CBH opens receival sites as they are required as the harvest progresses and grain growers are notified via the CBH Notifier app of what times and days particular sites are operating.
CBH general manager operations David Capper said regional sites were starting to open now and “harvest should begin in earnest in all zones over the next couple of weeks”.
“Spots of clear weather in recent weeks has provided some growers in the Geraldton, Kwinana and Esperance zones an opportunity to start their harvest for this season,” Mr Capper said.
“We expect to see our first delivery in the Albany zone next week with clear weather forecast across the State this week.
The Grains Industry Association of WA (GIWA) last week released its grains standards review 2018 for barley, canola and oats.
Changes applying from this harvest include a maximum protein limit for all Malt1 barley grades lifted from 12.5 per cent to 12.8pc, the same as for Malt2 barley.
The distorted barley kernels limit has been relaxed.
It is 20 in 400 grains (5pc) for Malt1, 30 in 400 (7pc) for Malt2, 45 in 400 (11pc) for BFED1 and BFDEC grades and 80 in 400 (20pc) for BFED2.
The corresponding limits previously were 1pc, 2pc, 7pc and 15pc.
GIWA has also forecast tighter tolerance on snails in barley and canola and a halving of tolerance on the Oat2 groat (crushed grain) count to apply for the 2019-20 harvest.