Your weekly CBH Harvest Update - 21 November 2022

Several rainfall events across the state this past week slowed down the rate of harvest deliveries, with 1.4 million tonnes received taking total deliveries to 3.9 million tonnes, compared to a total of 4.7 million tonnes this time last year.  

Chief Operations Officer Mick Daw said that the rainfall events throughout most of the state over the past week had halted harvest in some areas.  

“We have again had considerable rainfall across most of the state with some areas throughout the central wheatbelt also reporting hail and loss of crop.” 

“Despite this slow and frustrating start to the harvest period for both growers and our Operations team, some of our sites have still managed to break daily receival records.” 

“Some growers are still reporting yields higher than expected and protein in the Northern part of the state is also higher than expected at this stage which is a fantastic result.” 

“We do, however, anticipate that this will place some pressure on some sites and services across the network with some sites expected to fill and close.” 

“We are currently monitoring this and working through how this is managed, but we are encouraging those growers that can deliver direct to port to do so,” said Mr Daw.  

With the state seeing a rise in COVID cases, CBH is reminding growers and transporters to use the CDF app for all of their harvest deliveries, and not to enter a site if they have any COVID symptoms. More information about the COVID-19 Safety Requirements can be found here.

Zone Summary

Albany Zone

• The start to harvest has been slow with growers battling high moisture levels and rain events across various parts of the zone. 
• The total grain received is 255,000 tonnes with the majority canola, with some barley and oats starting to be delivered. 
• The quality of canola has been good.  
• The Lake Grace and Jerramungup areas have had the most receivals to date. Hyden broke its daily receival record twice in consecutive days with 60 per cent of the grain received on those days being canola. 
• All areas in the zone now have sites which are open with the average cycle time sitting at 41.7 minutes. 

Esperance Zone

• Wet weather has impacted the zone again this week, ranging between 6 - 35mm across the region.  
• Harvest progress has been slow due to high moisture issues and rainfall, but towards the end of the week there has been a steady increase in receivals.  
• More rain is expected over the next few days, with some fine weather finally arriving next week and we anticipate harvest receivals to increase significantly.   
• Dominant commodities are still canola and barley, with volumes of malt barley slowly increasing. Wheat is still very slow, which is to be expected. 
• The average cycle time is 55.5 minutes across the network. 

Geraldton Zone

• Warm weather has helped increase the pace of harvest, with wheat deliveries picking up this week, but a wet end to the week slowed things down again.  
• The Geraldton Zone has received 1,473,000 tonnes to date and all sites are now open.
• The Binnu and Northampton sites both broke daily receival records with 6,232 and 7,984 tonnes respectively. 
• Commodities mix received is 35 per cent canola, 48 per cent wheat, 11 per cent lupins, 0.5 per cent feed barley.  
• Yields and quality are still going above expectations.  

Kwinana North Zone

• With a weeks’ worth of good harvesting conditions, Kwinana North Zone has seen receivals pick up with a total of 1,235,000 tonnes received.  
• Merredin and Koorda have both broken their daily receival records, receiving 16,761 tonnes and 10,535 tonnes respectively. 
• The zone is now receiving all commodities and grain quality has been good with yields higher than expected in some areas.  
• The majority of sites are open throughout each area, with the average zone cycle time sitting at 41.5 minutes.  

Kwinana South Zone

• Harvest receivals have ramped up over the past seven days, however wet weather continues to impact harvesting across the zone, with most growers losing on average two days of harvesting this week. 
• Only 11 per cent of the expected volumes for Kwinana South have been received so far. This time last year the zone had received about 19 per cent, indicating it will be a bigger, slower, and longer harvest.    
• Growers are mostly still delivering canola, but a few have signalled that they will be coming to an end of canola harvesting within the coming week. Wheat and barley volumes are ramping up, but these are still at least six weeks away from peaking. Oats and Lupins are slow but steady.  
• Canola and wheat quality has been good overall.  
• A number of Kwinana South sites have reduced operating hours due to wet weather across the zone, with cycle times are slightly up from last year. 

Harvest Hero

Each year, our existing CBH employees are joined by hundreds of harvest casuals, and as a team they work together to receive the WA crop as safely and efficiently as possible. We again want to highlight some of these harvest heroes who help make our grain supply chain the best in the world and make harvest our favourite time of year.  

This week’s Harvest Hero is Martina Bakker, also known as Tina.

Tina’s role as Head Sampler has seen her running the Lake Varley sample hut for over six years. Her colleague, Sheridan Rafols who nominated her said that when she joined CBH, Tina helped her with a lot of the procedures and systems.     

“Tina came around with me to every site in the area to do stock takes and deliver stock out to sites. She also helped me check over sampling gear such as infratects and falling numbers to make sure they were set up properly.”  

“Whilst doing all of this, Tina brought an amazing attitude and lots of fun to my day.”   

Tina brings a fun, loving and energetic attitude to the team. Along with being very knowledgeable, she is often a ‘motherlike’ figure to a lot of our first-time workers on site.  

“Tina has always been so caring and motherly to me, like she is to all of our other team members, reminding us to eat and drink throughout the day,” said Sheridan. 

“Tina was also such an asset when new team members arrived at the accommodation, she helped them settle in and assign them a room, which she had cleaned prior to their arrival. None of which anyone had asked her to do – she just used her initiative and took on the job herself.”   

Tina is also well known and loved by many of the truck drivers, farmers and partners who always speak highly of her and often can't wait to see her each year.  

It’s people like Tina who make up our team of harvest heroes.   

Thank you, Tina, for your wonderful contribution to the CBH Group.

Head Sampler - Martina Bakker