CBH harvest receivals reach 16.7 million tonnes

The past week saw inclement cold and rain conditions in the central and southern parts of the State, as well as hot conditions and high winds with harvest bans and fires through the central and northern parts.

CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said while many growers were now finishing harvest for the season, there was still a lot more grain to be delivered.

"Unfortunately, due to the frustrating weather over the past few weeks, a lot of growers throughout the south of the State are still finishing canola deliveries but will start to move over to wheat and barley," Mr Daw said.

"Meanwhile, many growers in the Geraldton zone are finishing up just in time for Christmas."

Despite the frustrating weather conditions, 18 sites broke receival records.

In addition to the site records, the rail performance had also consistently improved over the past few months.

"It is really pleasing to see records broken on all fronts from site and zone receival records to road, rail and shipping," Mr Daw said.

"In particular, I'd like to call out the improved rail performance which has seen our rail provider, Aurizon, continue to break monthly records consecutively from July to November.

"The largest rail tonnage record of 8.5mt for the calendar year period from January to December was originally set in 2019, however that has already been broken with the current rail record sitting at 8.mt, with the rest of December still yet to come."

As of Monday, the Geraldton zone was sitting at 3.7mt and was starting to receive less tonnes every day.

Wheat and lupins were the main commodities being received and the grain quality was good with yields still above expectation.

Kwinana North received 919,800t last week, taking the total to 4.9mt so far.

Harvesting conditions were good for the week, with only a small amount of rain last Tuesday which slowed deliveries.

"We are now receiving all commodities across the zone, however canola is largely complete and growers are now into their barley and wheat programs," Mr Daw said.

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"Grain quality has been good with yields higher than expected in some areas."

There were a few sites closed for the season last week and more are expected.

In Kwinana South, 71.6 per cent of the estimated harvest had been received as of Monday and some segregations were starting to close as services filled.

Wheat was the main commodity received to date, with the zone sitting at 3.2mt across all commodities.

There was some good harvesting weather last week across the Albany zone, which saw 774,100t delivered.

"In the northern part of the zone, barley and wheat were the majority of grain being delivered, and in the southern areas, barley and canola with smaller tonnes of wheat were making up deliveries," Mr Daw said.

"Grain quality has been good across the zone and yields continue to be above expectations."

All sites in the zone are open and receiving grain, with average zone cycle time sitting at 38.9 minutes.

Receivals in the Esperance zone were impacted by weather and moisture concerns, taking total receivals so far to 2.1mt.

Wheat, barley, canola, field peas and lupins were all being received across the zone.

Mr Daw said the zone had been affected by unseasonably cool conditions for this time of the year.

"Segregation changes have been implemented to offer the growers more flexibility on receival," he said.

Sites across the State will be finishing at lunchtime on Christmas Eve and will be closed on Sunday and Monday for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.