WITH more than 3.5 million tonnes in carry-over and another predicted record harvest on the way, CBH Group has been thinking outside the box to try and help solve its storage woes.
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The co-operative has turned to grain bagging to ease the load at selected sites, with Landpoint Holdings called in.
It is the only company in Western Australia that does contract bagging and has been doing so for 20 years, but this is the first time it has been contracted by CBH which speaks to the volume of grain in the system.
Having maxed itself out building about 2.4 million tonnes of emergency storage, CBH organised about 65,000t of bags and highlighted key sites it expected to come under extra pressure.
Head of operations Duncan Gray said they knew they couldn't always help each grower individually and saw this as a short-term fix to help all growers at certain locations.
"The good part about it is that it is a flexible solution and we can move it to wherever the hot spots are," Mr Gray said.
"It's not going to be the saviour for everywhere, but it definitely helped out here and there."
Kellerberrin was the first site targeted, with CBH working closely with the local shire to utilise some of its land just to the west of the site.
About 25,000t of grain was put into a combination of 120 metre long bags each holding 450t of grain, as well as 75m long bags which hold 250t each.
That freed up space and grid capacity for grower throughput at that site which had already received more than 270,000t by the end of last week.
"If we didn't move that grain, we would have lost that grid capacity and as soon as you lose a grid at a site like Kellerberrin, you are really hindering the throughput for growers," Mr Gray said.
From there, the operation shifted to Kalannie where about 20,000t of feed barley was bagged.
CBH bought land from a grower to the east of the current dirt bulkheads and after he harvested the crop, they began putting feed barley into the bulkhead and at the same time taking it out with their two chaser bins and tractors, straight into the bagging machines operated by Landpoint.
It kept one of the portable drive-over grids free to be able to offer services and throughput at the site.
Landpoint Holdings general manager Jack Arundel said they were effectively troubleshooting at certain sites which had stopped receiving certain types of grains.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg because I know a lot of the bins, particularly along the Great Eastern Highway, will be pretty close to full by the end of the week," Mr Arundel said.
"It has been a perfect storm - there was a record harvest last year which led to a big carry-over, there were difficulties getting trucks and trains so it was harder to move grain, plus there was no frost and a soft finish.
"Two brilliant years in a row is normally unheard of, let alone two record years in a row and while it's a great problem to have, it does cause some headaches."
At the end of last week, the operation shifted to Marchagee where the site was shut for three days to get the bagging underway before reopening on Monday.
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A further 15,000t is expected to be bagged there and while CBH has started to identify other sites, such as Moora and McLevie, it only has between 5000 and 10,000t of bags left available.
"Harvest has been coming at us at a rate of knots but we are looking at other options and other ways of maximising space where we can," Mr Gray said.
For example, CBH is working closely with the Shire of Mingenew to utilise an old iron ore pad and while that strategy is not over the line yet, it is something they implemented years ago.
