THE CBH Group has completed its biggest ever investment in the network, with approximately $240 million invested this year to maintain existing infrastructure, expand storage capacity and enhance supply chain efficiency.
In the 12 months to the end of September 2019, CBH added approximately one million tonnes of new permanent storage, completed throughput enhancement projects at 36 receival sites and installed 16 new weighbridges.
The year's works are part of CBH's significant ongoing investment into the network to keep fees competitive, increase throughput capacity and efficiency, and meet export demand at the right time to capture value for growers' grain.
CBH general manager operations Ben Macnamara said the co-operative followed an annual process to identify sites and storage infrastructure that needed to be enhanced to make the system more efficient and to meet grower service expectations.
"This year we enhanced the process by capturing invaluable feedback from growers and front-line employees as part of our Post Harvest Review meetings which were held in each CBH zone and area this February and March," Mr Macnamara said.
"The team categorised the feedback from the meetings and prioritised each element, considering the health, safety, environmental, financial feasibility and engineering aspects of each idea put forward.
"Projects that were most needed, but that could be completed safely, quickly and simply were given priority.
"In parallel we also developed the larger projects, for next year and beyond, that will provide growers long-term value.
"This approach led us to undertake projects of all sizes this year - from large scale new storage builds to smaller site-specific maintenance works as well as inloading and outloading initiatives.
"Of course, there are some projects that could not be completed this year due to constraints such as availability of land, but we are working hard on resolving these issues."
CBH has upgraded grain inloading infrastructure at more than 36 grain receival sites to increase the grid speeds to up to 500 tonnes per hour.
The sites that received inloading upgrades were Arrino, Avon, Bodallin, Broomehill, Bruce Rock, Cadoux, Chadwick, Gairdner, Kojaneerup, Koorda, Merredin, Mingenew, Moonyoonooka, Munglinup, Narembeen, Narrakine, Piawaning, Salmon Gums, West River and York.
The projects included the replacement or installation of additional equipment at the sites, including grain inloading machinery to open bulkheads, elevators, weighbridges, augers and stackers.
CBH has installed 16 new weighbridges that are longer in length at 36 metres.
The longer weighbridges will eliminate the time-consuming process of weighing individual axles.
Bonnie Rock, Broomehill, Doodlakine, Lake Grace, Merredin, Metro Grain Centre, Mindarabin, Morawa, Muntadgin, Mukinbudin, Warralakin, Wellstead and West River received inloading weighbridges, while Konnongorring, Moonyoonooka and Narngulu received new permanent exit weighbridges.
Mobile exit weighbridges were installed at Brookton, Corrigin and Moora.
In grain storage, CBH has recently completed the last of the permanent storage expansion projects for this harvest including the largest of this year's expansion projects at the McLevie site.
McLevie has tripled its permanent storage capacity with 236,000 tonnes of storage added in six open bulkheads, with two new fixed conveyor loading systems that can receive grain at 500 tonnes per hour.
The site's total capacity is now approximately 330,000t.
Other completed sites include Broomehill, three open bulkheads adding 77,400t; Cranbrook, 152,000t constructed from six open bulkheads; Dowerin, 122,400t built from three open bulkheads; and Wickepin, two open bulkheads adding 106,000t and the permanent upgrade of two existing emergency open bulkheads.
There is also significant focus on improving rail outloading and port inloading to increase the outbound capacity and efficiency of the network.
This will enable CBH to move grain into port to more efficiently service its export customer demands.
CBH has published an interactive network map that shows the major enhancements performed on receival sites since 2016 on its website.
Users can click on the map to see an overview of network investment projects completed for each site.
This map will be regularly updated with new projects once they break ground.
"While harvest is getting underway now, the team is already starting work on planning for next year's network capital and maintenance program," Mr Macnamara said.
"We remain conscious that seeking grower input enhances the quality of our projects.
"So as always, we look forward to receiving grower feedback after this harvest on how our new infrastructure performed and what further improvements can be made so growers continue to have the best possible supply chain that meets their farm's current and future business needs."
