FURTHER rain across the WA grain growing region last week has continued to slow down harvest, with almost 920,000 tonnes being received by CBH Group in the week leading up to, and including, Sunday.
It takes total deliveries to 3.51 million tonnes, which is a similar total to this time last year, despite a larger crop expected this season.
CBH chief operations officer Ben Macnamara said so far, about 40 per cent of deliveries were made up of barley, while wheat accounted for about 25pc.
"It has been a frustrating start to the harvest period for growers and our operations team, but we're hoping conditions will allow growers to get harvesting and deliveries to increase into our sites," Mr Macnamara said.
"We'll continue to monitor grain receivals and liaise with growers to make sure we keep offering the service they need, when they need it."
The Geraldton zone experienced another slow week following more rainfall in the region, with some growers receiving up to 14 millimetres.
About 205,000t were delivered from November 9-15, with total receivals at 925,000t as of Monday, which is well-below average levels compared to this time in previous years.
At this stage, quality has held up but there could be some slight deterioration in the form of falling numbers or stained grain in some wheat grades due to rain.
In Kwinana North, falls of between 5mm and 30mm were received and only 260,000t delivered, taking the zone's total to 990,000t.
Most growers had been harvesting lupins and canola over the week given the cool conditions, but barley has made up the majority of receivals so far.
Wheat received up to this point has been of mostly good quality, but there are some parts of the zone seeing high screenings.
In Kwinana South, harvest started to ramp up the weekend of November 7-8, but widespread rain across the region slowed receivals dramatically.
To date 571,000t have been received, of which 141,000t were delivered from November 9-15, with early indications showing that quality is holding up and looking slightly better than expected in some areas.
It was a stop-start week for the Albany zone due to the rain, with 102,000t received taking the total for the area to 317,000t.
Barley quality has been good so far with about 30pc of deliveries making malt grade, while about 75pc of oats delivered have been grading OAT1.
The Esperance zone had another challenging week, with widespread showers midweek grinding activity to a standstill for a few days and a front last Tuesday, with strong winds, resulted in damage to some crops.
As of Monday, 716,000t had been received, of which 206,000t were delivered in the past week.
Most of those deliveries consisted of canola or barley and the quality to date has been good.
